THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Club, and quoted speakers’ accounts. One of the speakers, Mr. W. P. Pycraft, 
wrote a letter which was published in the same Journal, p. 265, suggesting 
I had misquoted him, but gave no facts in support. As he stated I did not 
tell my readers that I was quoting from the B.O.C. Bulletin , it is certain that 
he had not carefully read my account. Unfortunately that same carelessness 
characterises the whole of his work — excuses being proffered: “ I had to write 
hurriedly,” and “ Had I had an opportunity of carefully choosing my words ” 
— it is therefore unnecessary to deal further with his misleading letter, but I 
would just deal with one sentence : “ Colour alone ought not to be taken as 
the factor for the determination of generic characters. We ought to begin 
with the deeper-seated characters.” Had Mr. Pycraft carefully chosen his 
words those sentences might have been written differently. No genus among 
Passerine forms can be distinguished from a closely allied genus by the “ deeper- 
seated characters.” To speak of beginning with them is absurd. 
I have recently been endeavouring to deal with the higher groupings, and 
have found that “ deeper-seated characters ” cannot easily be provided for 
orders and families, so that we cannot expect them to be available for genera, 
and Mr. Pycraft himself has proved this to be true, judging from his published 
writings. Thus he has been compelled to use as generic characters, in his 
osteological papers, size and inconstant factors which with regard to similarly 
coloured birds would be considered subspecific. No “deeper-seated characters” 
are available for the differentiation, at the present time, of Passerine birds. I 
will return to this subject in detail in the future. I am now concerned with 
Pachycephaline forms and the coloration is the only means of separating these, 
and it must be remembered that similar coloration does not mean relationship 
unless it be confirmed by study of the plumage changes, oology and structural 
characters such as are available. 
The changes in coloration can be easily traced through several groups, 
while the structural features are seen to differ. If the coloration differed also 
the members would become quickly separated, but lumpers are guided by colour, 
while professing to utilise structure alone. The true Pachyceyphala has the young 
uniformly red, which changes to brown on the back, then to grey, the under- 
surface to pale greyish intensified as a breast-band, lacking on the throat, and 
inclining to whitish on the abdomen. The male has a vivid green coloration 
with a pure white throat, succeeded by a black band and then yellow to the 
vent, while the head and tail are black. Without a deal of alteration the male 
coloration may be seen in many species. The female varies to a deep reddish 
breast and abdomen and then in a whitish one and then into a bright yellow 
like the male but lacking the black breast-band. Then the black of the head 
appears also on the chin and the throat spot later becomes all black. In another 
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