No. 4.] THE AUSTRAL AVIAN RECORD 85 



the birds keep dropping out of sight, and eventually one finds 

 that the whole party has vanished in the scrub. The note 

 (song) is a similar musical trilling to that of Mai. leuconotus, 

 but is not uttered nearly so frequently. This species usually 

 runs on the ground at great speed, occasionally hops ; they 

 are very skilful in flying perpendicularly into the air, from 

 a bush, and catching small insects on the wing. It apparently 

 breeds in September, as a quite recently fledged 3'oung bird 

 was noted on Oct. 9th and many of various sizes about 

 Oct. 18. None of this species were seen or obtained by me 

 on the mainland, where the dividing arm of the sea is barely 

 one mile in width, but was replaced by Malurus leuconotus 

 which was fairly common. 



" Diaphorillas textilis carteri from Dirk Hartog Island. 

 Apl. 29, 1916. Walked out from my camp at Government- 

 Well, near north-east corner of the island, among coast sand 

 hills. On the western slope of the last ridge, saw a bird dart 

 out of a bush close to me, and run at great speed from bush 

 to bush with head outstretched and tail horizontal. It looked 

 like a rat. I squeaked with my lips and it stopped running, 

 creeping about on the ground, below short bushes close to me, 

 like a Ground Thrush. It kept well concealed affording only 

 a glimpse now and then. . . . About fifty yards further along 

 the slope of the same sandhill I caught sight of a bird, low 

 down in a large wattle bush. I squeaked with my lips, and 

 it rapidly climbed, like a Parrot, to about six feet above the 

 ground, then turned, facing me, with head down, wings and 

 tail expanded and feathers ruffled out. Neither of the above 

 birds uttered any noise that I could hear. 



" Oct. 17th. Saw a bird, that at first I thought was a 

 Calamanthus fly from an open place off the ground to under 

 the shelter of a mass of bushes. I crawled there on hands and 

 knees, and squeaked with my lips. At once Diaphorillas 

 textilis came in sight under a mass of bush within eight feet 

 of me and with outspread drooping wings and feathers puffed 

 out uttering a low scolding note, ran backwards and forwards 

 keeping well under shelter of the bushes. 



