THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
“Many intermediate specimens, however, form a complete link from the 
large to the small form, and the smaller form seems not to be confined to the 
southern parts of Australia, nor the larger form to the northern parts. These 
slight differences might in other families of birds be reckoned as specific 
characters, but they seem to be of httle value in the genus Podargus. I 
therefore come to the conclusion that aU these varieties belong to one species. 
It must be left to Australian field-ornithologists to study all these forms 
carefully. Should further investigations prove that I am wrong in uniting 
them, I still maintain that the smaller form is merely a subspecies, and at 
present I do not even admit that it is worthy of this recognition.” 
In connection with the “ species ” Podargus 'phalcenoides was written : 
“This species is easily distinguished from P. strigoides by its beautiful delicate 
coloration and smaller size. The contrast between the yellow bill of P. 
phalcenoides and the bluish-black bffl of P. cuvieri in Gould’s beautiful plates 
(Z.C.), however, seems to be exaggerated.” As a footnote Hartert added : 
“ Podargus hrachypterus . . . seems to belong to P. phalcenoides, but Gould 
appears to have also included under this name small specimens of P. strigoides. 
Gould’s P. macrorhynchus is probably also referable to P. phalcenoides.^' 
Under P. strigoides Hartert catalogued a specimen from N.W. AustraHa 
ex Capt. Bowyer Bower, its companion being referred to P. phalcenoides. In 
the same way specimens from Rocldngham Bay were separated into the two 
species. When he received a collection from North-west Australia, some years 
later, he reviewed the forms, concludhig {Nov. Zool., Vol. XII., p. 216) under 
the name Podargus phalcenoides : “ I do not at aU consider the question of the 
various Australian forms of Podargus quite satisfactorily settled, but it seems to 
me that the Podargus strigoides, wliich inhabits the greater part of Queensland, 
New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania (from where I have 
no examples before me), is represented in western and northern Australia, east- 
wards to North Queensland, by a generally smaller and lighter, more delicately 
marked subspecies, Podargus phalcenoides of Gould, though sometimes indi- 
viduals cannot easily be distinguished, and some are quite intermediate. . . . 
I beheve . . . the following forms (might be recognised): — 
“ Podargus strigoides strigoides : roughly speaking, the eastern portion of 
Australia. There is every possible intergradation between the various 
aberrations, only phalcenoides being more or less separated and having 
another distribution. 
“ Podargus strigoides phalcenoides : a western and northern form of strigoides." 
This conclusion agrees better than the preceding with the facts . , . 
Following Hartert in the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, 
Campbell, in his Nests and Eggs, only admitted Podargus strigoides and 
30 
