The Emu. 
9 
Petroeca ramsayi, Sharpe, a Variety of P. 
goodenovii, Vig. and Hors. 
By Robert Hall. 
Petraxa ranisayi is said to be found only in the Northern 
Territory and North-Western AustraHa. 
P. goodenovii is said not to be found in these areas, but in all 
others of Australia. 
I have personally collected in Swan Hill, Victoria (21/2/ 1900), 
a skin of P. ranisayi, and I know of one being found near the 
centre of the continent, so that in the first place the distribution 
of each may be extended. To see and collect P. ramsayi in 
Victoria seems remarkable. 
Now this Victorian specimen of P. ramsayi is only partially 
marked red on the throat, but the few feathers have that colour 
so definitely marked that it would not for a moment be called 
P. goode7iovii, which has a black throat. 
It had occurred to me, judging by the known distribution of the 
two species, that when the Red-capped Robins started from the 
Cape York Peninsula to populate our continent* the red-throated 
part went due west and had to stop at a little beyond the Fitzroy 
River, owing to geographical barriers ; and that the black- 
throated part went due south as far as Victoria, then w^est to 
Albany, W.A., and north to a little above Geraldton, W.A. 
There it stayed, owing to the same desert barriers that stopped 
the downward western course of the red-throated part. 
The above specimen appears to be a connecting link between 
the two. I mentioned the matter to Mr. G. A. Keartland, who 
tells me he saw several mature birds in North-Western Australia 
with only a flush of red upon their throats, and others without 
any. 
The fact, in addition, of finding this abnormal specimen where 
" black throats" alone are said to be found, leads me to consider 
the two species one and the same. It is like a case of reversion, 
where the black pigment of the throat has turned out the red 
and the red of the forehead has turned out the black. This 
would tend to make the species a much modified off-shoot of 
P, leggii. However, this is by the way just now. 
The Swan Hill specimen is a moulting bird, showing the wing 
quills and many of the interscapulum feathers still brown as in 
the young bird of the first year. It is interesting to note that 
this brown pigment is a combination of the red and black that 
are shown in strong contrast the following year. The forehead 
is a blaze of developing " reds," while the breast is uniform red 
and concluded in the moult of the season. The usual black parts 
of the adult plumage are nearly as black in this specimen. 
It would have been interesting to know whether the next 
* " Key to the Birds of Australia and Tasmania," Hall, pp. vi., vii., viii. 
