84 THE AUSTRAL AVIAN RECORD [Vol. III. 



Amytis gigantura from Mount Magnet, West Australia, and 

 then North differentiated the Meerenie Bluff, Central Australia, 

 form from the New South Wales bird Gould and he recognised 

 as M. textilis Q. & G. Then Carter described the form from 

 Broome Hill, but later concluded this was Gould's A. macrourus. 

 When I drew up my Reference List I described another form 

 from Cardinia, south-east of Coolgardie, and I named the New 

 South Wales form as it was obvious it could not be the 

 Shark's Bay bird. Since then more forms have been named 

 but the typical Malurus textilis had never been seen. Thus 

 a very important factor was still wanted and now Mr. Tom 

 Carter has completed this by the collection of birds from the 

 original place. The extreme value of such work cannot be 

 overestimated. 



Mr. Carter's field notes (abridged) are here given : 

 " Nesomalurus leucopterus. This Black and White Wren 

 was one of the commonest species on Dirk Hartog Island, but 

 the full plumaged males were, almost invariably, exceedingly 

 wild, while the females and immature males were tame, and 

 could always be ' chirped ' close up, often to within a distance 

 of three feet, and would remain there as long as one kept still. 

 If an adult male is come upon suddenly, say by one's going 

 quickly round a bush, it may remain motionless for a few 

 seconds. . . It then flies quickly and if followed it keeps 

 taking longer nights every time it is approached and eventually 

 is lost to sight. Once, on open ground, I came upon a full 

 plumaged male perched on a dry stick about 3 feet off the 

 ground. There was no cover for me to take and I had to 

 approach it openly and it remained motionless until I got 

 close up. It was no use to try to ' chirp ' up male birds, but 

 at times when a party of females and immatures were intently 

 watching me and listening to my ' chirping,' the male was 

 seen lurking in the dense foliage of a neighbouring bush, but 

 would not openly expose itself. The full-plumaged male, as 

 a rule, is accompanied by a party of six to ten females and 

 immature, and leads them away out of danger at high speed, 

 necessitating running to keep them in sight. One or two of 



