THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
ignored, all should be lumped into one genus. Fortunately the absurdity of 
thus suppressing valuable facts became apparent, and I now advocate splitting. 
A splitter must examine the birds critically in order to perform his duties, and 
in so doing brings to light many important details that the lumper has over- 
looked. He may over-value some of these details, but nevertheless they often 
prove invaluable in a different sense from the one first recorded under. 
In the present case I placed these species in Pachycephala and I lumped 
cerviniventris with super ciliosa as subspecies only, whereas they prove to be 
representative species and certainly not species of Pachycephala. 
I differentiated later Pachycephala superciliosa belcheri thus : “ Differs 
from P. s. cerviniventris in having the grey band in the throat, and the buff 
on the sides very much lighter. It is also lighter on the back and slightly 
smaller. Napier Broome Bay, North-west Australia.” This was followed 
by Pcecilodryas superciliosa derbyii, as I had reverted to the original genus 
but still maintained the conspecificity of the two. “ Differs from P. s. belcheri 
in having the fore-head brown instead of blackish, and in having more white 
on the outer tail-feathers. Derby, North-west Australia.” Then, Macgillivray’s 
far eastern form was named Poecilodryas superciliosa gregori. “ Differs from 
P. s. cerviniventris in having the band on the upper -breast much lighter, the 
belly and abdomen white, and the sides and flanks much less buff. It is 
also lighter on the back. Gregory River, Queensland.” 
These are all forms of Poecilodryas cerviniventris , and the only recognisable 
subspecies of P. superciliosa is my P. s. yorid , which “ differs from P. s. 
superciliosa (Gould) in being darker and smaller. Wing 68 mm : typical 
birds measure, wing 80 to 85 mm. Cape York, Queensland.” 
Thus there are : 
Poecilodryas superciliosa superciliosa (Gould). 
Northern Central Queensland. 
Poecilodryas superciliosa yorlci Mathews. 
North Queensland (Cape York district). 
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