CALAMANTHUS MONTANELLUS (Milligan) Rock Field-Wren 
Type. — No. 5340, Male. Type 5341, Female, in Western Australian 
Museum, Perth. 
Stirling Ranges. Collector, C. P. Comgrave. 
“The Emu,” April 1903, page 200. 
The new bird was found in the sterile stony tracts on the north or 
sheltered side on the Stirling Ranges. Its song is a series of musical 
warbling notes, which it utters either on the ground or in low bush. 
It runs along the ground like a mouse, and is very difficult to flush. 
The birds were very numerous in the sterile places indicated, but very 
difficult to secure. 
XEROPHILA CASTANEI VENTRIS (Milligan) Chestnut-bellied 
Whitetaee— 
Types. — 5521 and 5524 Male and Female in Western Australian 
Museum. 
Murchison District. 
“The Emu,” Vol. III., July, 1903, page 70. 
Obtained at Pindar, in the Murchison District, by Mr. J. T. 
Tunney, in 1902. A careful examination by Mr. A. W. Milligan dis- 
closed that major differences existed between it and the already 
described species of the genus Xe 7 'ophila. 
It may be distinguished from ( a ) X. leucopsis by the presence of a 
thicker bill and of deep dull chestnut rump, flanks and sides, and a 
chestnut and white abdomen, and white chin, throat and chest, and by 
the absence of the faint subterminal cross bars on the breast ; ( b ) from 
X. pecto 7 ‘alis principally by the absence of the chestnut-brown back 
and the well-defined pectoral band of cinnamon-brown and the chest- 
nut and white flanks, which in the new species are almost uniform 
chestnut ; and (c) from X. 7 iigricincta by the absence of the narrow 
black pectoral band and the cinnamon back which distinguish that 
species. The new species appears to occupy an intermediate position 
between X. pecto 7 'alis and X. nigricmcta. 
The following field notes by Mr. Lawson regarding the new 
species are of interest : — “ The cinnamon flanks are a consistent 
feature. The call note is musical, though rather plaintive. They 
love rocky places, and are ground feeders. They are fairly common 
and usually to be found in company with Sericornis bru 7 i 7 iea and 
Acanthiza pyrrho pygialisP 
