OTWAY SCRUB-WREN 283 
description is of a bird obtained by Mr. Mulder at j 
Bambra, but there would appear to be but one species ■ 
throughout the district. 
At Bream Creek these birds abound in the ti-tree. | 
They have a short, rather grating note, very like one ] 
of the notes of the Brown Tit, a bird usually present I 
in the same scrub. If one sits down in the shade ■ 
of a tree and keeps quiet, it will not be more than a j 
few minutes before one or more Sericornes come ] 
hopping about, moving quietly among the lower 1 
branches and brushwood with just an occasional i 
" cheep " until they are within a yard or two. They « 
seem to obtain the insects upon which they live j 
both from the ground and from beneath the loose ] 
bark which hangs in untidy strips from the ti-tree. j 
Of short rounded wings, they rarely fly farther than ■ 
from one bush to the next, or rather to the ground : 
adjacent, where they alight and run into the bush \ 
at its base. j 
At Bambra, where the settlers call them Fern-birds, 
Mr. Mulder found these birds so tame that they would 
come into the shed where he was working, and hop ; 
about unconcernedly. ; 
As to distribution, the next most favoured area j 
after the coastal thickets is the samphire scrub about \ 
the Salt Works, Stingaree Bay. There is, undoubtedly, ; 
no difference between these birds and those of the j 
coast, but I am not so sure about those inhabiting the i 
banks of freshwater forest-streams from Airey's Inlet i 
westward ; these seem to me rather richer in colouring 1 
1 
