324 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
It is not yet settled whether the Striated Pardalotes 
include two separate species or not. Mathews takes 
the latter view, and as I am adopting his nomen- 
clature I treat the species provisionally as one. At 
the same time I am bound to say that the colour of 
the speculum or wing spot, and the number of the 
primary wing feathers which are edged with white — 
the two points hitherto chiefly relied upon for species 
differentiation in these Pardalotes — vary greatly in 
specimens from the Geelong district. If these are 
only subspecific differences, then we have two 
different subspecies of the same species inhabiting 
the same geographical area ; and yet it is of the 
essence of subspecies that they inhabit separate 
geographical areas, and indeed have been produced 
by circumstances of one sort or another bringing 
about the isolation of the respective areas. 
Only once, and that at the You Yangs, have I 
obtained a specimen of the Pardalote with bright 
red speculum, and this bird had a distinct white 
wing-patch, i.e. several primaries edged with white. 
All other local Striated Pardalotes have the speculum 
deep orange, not red ; and the number of primaries 
edged with white has varied, in specimens I have 
examined, from one to five. 
Then there is the question of nesting. We find 
some Striated Pardalotes, notably at the Yarram 
Creek and at Gnarwarre, tunnelling into the perpen- 
dicular bank of a creek, with nest-chamber and nest 
at the end like those of the Spotted Pardalote, made 
