VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF HOUTMAN S ABROLHOS. -465 



Coraciiformes. 



Alcedisid*. 

 Sauropatis sancta westralasiana {Campbell). Sacred Kingfisher. 

 Hall found a pair frequenting an abandoned jetty at Pelsart Island, going 

 in and out among the plankiug as if nesting. He shot the female. 



Passeriforin.es- 



II I R DNDINIDJ;. 



Hirundo neoxena carteri, Mathews. Welcome Swallow. 



Met with on almost every island. The birds appear to nest under the 

 overhanging shelves or low cliffs found round most of the islands. On 

 Pigeon Island a swallow was seen to carry nesting-material into a situation 

 of this kind. 



MUSCICAPIDA 



Whiteornis goodenovii ruficapillus, Mathews. Red-capped Robin. 

 Hall shot a young bird of this species on Pelsart Island, which he 

 considered, doubtless correctly, as a stray visitor from the mainland. 



T HE LI I D JE. 



Ptencedus mathewsi mathewsi (Iredale). Rufous Song-Lark. 



Hall met with three birds of this species on Pelsart Island in the man- 

 groves and shot one of them, a young male. He thought they might have 

 nested on the island, but probably they were only visitors from the mainland. 



Sericornis maculatus fuscipes, subsp. nov. Spotted Scrub- Wren. 



Common amongst the bushes on East and AVest Wallaby Islands. In the 

 ' Birds of Australia,' Gould, after referring to the variability of S. macu- 

 latus, states that specimens from Soutinan's Abrolhos differ from examples 

 from the mainland in their rather smaller size, much greyer tint on the back, 

 and much darker-coloured legs. In the Western Australian Museum are 

 four rather poor specimens from the Abrolhos obtained by Milligan in 

 November 1907. I have compared these with lb' specimens from various 

 localities in S.W. Australia, including two from Albany, the tvpe-locality of 

 S. macvlatus. There are also available four specimens from the islands in 

 Sharks Bay, one of them from Bernier Island, the tj'pe-locality of S.balstoni, 

 Grant, and the other three, which agree closely with it, from Dorre Island. 



None of the specimens agrees with S. mathewsi warreni, Mathews, which 

 is said to have a " greenish (not greyish) olive back," though there are 

 examples from localities on both sides of the Warren River. 



