20 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



spurious wings always orange-red, never yellow as in P. affinis." In 

 vol. x. Brit. Mus. Cat. Birds, p. 56, 1885, Dr. Sharpe speaks of it 

 thus : — " I find, moreover, that all the birds for which I propose 

 to adopt Ramsay's name of P. assimilis have, as a rule, the third 

 and fourth primaries edged with white, the third for two-thirds of 

 its length, the fourth only near the base, but varying in extent and 

 sometimes extending a good way up the feather." What the 

 " as a rule " refers to I do not know unless it means the third 

 primary alone is edged with white. Recently in the Proc. Lin. 

 Soc. N.S.W., 1899, page 472, I described a phase of P. 

 assimilis in which the third primary alone in all its stages of 

 age was edged with white and the speculse crimson. I am now 

 able to describe two additional phases, and more clearly define a 

 third (d" as under) as follows : — 



d' The third primary alone edged with white for two-thirds its 



length ; the speculse orange, 

 d" The third primary edged with white for two-thirds its 



length, and the fourth with a smaller amount of white, 



except at its base, which is not white ; speculse dull 



yellow, 

 d'" The outer edge of the third primary alone edged with 



white for two-thirds its length ; speculse bright yellow. 



A comparison of phase d'" with P. affinis will show them to 

 be the same, and a whole description of either will apply to 

 both. The data of the specimens are : — d' adult male skin, 

 1899, Brighton, Vic. ; d" adult female skin, 21/10/94, Box Hill, 

 Vic. ; d"' adult male skin, 19/8/97, Box Hill, Vic. From this 

 I Conclude the species P. affinis, Gould, is the same as the sub- 

 species P. assimilis, Ramsay, and accordingly will rank as a 

 synomyn of it, the key to the sub-species now reading : — Head 

 streaked white ; third primary edged for two-thirds its length 

 with white, sometimes the fourth, and varying in extent; tips of 

 primary coverts scarlet, crimson, orange, or yellow. 



Furthermore, I have recently received skins of P. ornatus, 

 Temm., which show the speculse to be in (a) yellow, (b) nonde- 

 script fed, (c) scarlet. It is for this reason I feel disposed to 

 unite the species P. affinis to the sub-species P. assimilis. If 

 Dr. Ramsay in the first place was satisfied to consider what he 

 called P. assimilis a sub-species, I am of opinion, now that the 

 colours of P. ornatus are multiplying in about the same pro- 

 portion as those of the sub-species, that the same relation may 

 remain with regard to P. affinis. 



2. Field Notes on a Phase of Pardalotus assimilis, 



Ramsay. 

 A few weeks ago I reported the finding of an undescribed phase 

 of Pardalotus assimilis, Ramsay, in Victoria. So far, the normal 



