178 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



of the adult of P. gutturalis. The dark brown is reasonable 

 with the phases of P. gutturalis in my possession. The phase 

 (c) has the forehead and lores partly rufous and partly grey. 

 This I make one sure connecting link between" Gould's P. rvfo- 

 gularis and Latham's P. gutturalis. A second is that the whole 

 of the under surface of phase (c) is losing its uniform rufous and 

 is blotched with grey, the coming phase. Hence Gould's P. 

 rufogularis is this bird just prior to the moult, and about the age 

 of nine months. 



You may notice that Gould records the young male as being 

 like the female. Had Gould let his so-called "adult" male live 

 for another month or two he would have seen it change into what 

 he calls the young male, and a bird about nine months old. It 

 is most probable that Gould never saw the phases (a) and (b), and 

 was unaware of the changes in P. gutturalis. 



Dr. Gadow, in the " British Museum Catalogue of Birds," vol. 

 viii., 1883, places an observation as a footnote to the species 

 that gives it no support as a species, and depends very much 

 upon Gould for the descriptions of the skins. It is : — " The 

 specimens in the British Museum are not in good condition, and 

 I cannot state to what species, either P. rufogularis or P. gilberti, 

 they belong ; or if they are young males or females of P. rufo- 

 gularis? One of these specimens referred to is marked as found 

 in Tasmania. Gould did not notice the species anywhere but in 

 South Australia. I take it, the bird referred to by Dr. Gadow is 

 the young of P. glaucura, which is said to be the Tasmanian 

 representative of the genus. Colonel Legge has noted P. 

 gutturalis in Tasmania, so that there is no definite place for 

 this young bird, judging by the feeble differences in the char- 

 acters said to distinguish P. glaucura from P. gutturalis. 



The British Museum key to the species refers to a black 

 pectoral collar. This does not agree with Gould's coloured 

 drawing or type specimen, and I have no doubt this particular 

 specimen is just a few months older than Gould's type, judging 

 by the development I know occurs in the young of P. gutturalis. 



Dr. Ramsay, in his notes and references to the " Tabular List 

 of Australian Birds," considers P. rufogularis is a very doubtful 

 species, but he is not able to prove it a phase of P. gutturalis. 

 Mr. A. J. Campbell, at a late date, sent a specimen to Dr. 

 Ramsay, who exhibited it as a specimen of P. rufogularis at a 

 meeting of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. Subsequently 

 Mr. Campbell has seen, in the live state, in the bush near Lily- 

 dale, two specimens of rufous-coloured thickheads and an almost 

 fully fledged rufous family in a nest. The nest group was without 

 doubt the young of P. gutturalis, as they were being fed by the 

 parent male of that species. 



The list of Australian birds published by the Australasian 



