THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
yellow.” This was written after he had separated as a distinct species 
the Tasmanian representative as P. glaucura , on account of its larger size and 
wholly grey tail. The north-western bird had even before then been described 
as another species, P. melctnura, of which more will be written hereafter. 
When Masters was with the “ Che vert ” he collected several birds at Cape 
Grenville, etc., which he determined as P. melanura, and then for a large- 
billed female at Cape York he proposed P. robusta as a new species. This will 
also be discussed later. 
Then in 1878 Ramsay described the West Australian form, which Gould 
stated above he could not distinguish, as a different species P. occidentalis , 
mainly in connection with the coloration of the females, the much deeper 
rufous tint of the under-surface, and as to the male the grey tail without any 
basal olive wash and the well-defined yellow neckband. 
Then North, in describing the Lord Howe Island Thickhead, which, however, 
has previously received a name from Hartert, criticised the descriptions, etc., 
in the British Museum Catalogue and noted that the localities of the specimens 
were also wrong. He stated that the “ basal two-thirds of the tail grey, apical 
third blackish -brown, tipped with grey ” was not applicable to that species 
but to the western form P. occidentalis. “ Adult males of P. gutturalis from New 
South Wales have the basal portion of the tail-feathers olive-green, or grey with 
a more or less olive-green wash especially on the outer webs. Specimens from 
South Australia are like the western form, P. occidentalis , but have the basal 
portion of the tail-feathers of a slightly darker grey and the blackish-brown 
apical band darker and broader. Some specimens from western Victoria 
are similar to those from South Australia. A specimen in Mr. Edwin Ashby’s 
collection procured at Lai Lai is like P. occidentalis, but having the faintest 
trace of an ofive -green wash on the basal portion of the tail-feathers and the 
apical band much broader. Should it be necessary to distinguish this darker 
grey-tailed form from South Australia and western Victoria, I would propose 
for it the name of Pachycephala meridionalis. This forms a connecting link 
between the species inhabiting New South Wales and its extreme western 
representative P. occidentalis. The adult male was obtained in the hills near 
Adelaide.” 
A little later A. G. Campbell, discussing Kangaroo Island forms, wrote : 
“ Several were seen inland in thick scrub by the creeks. On comparison with 
specimens from Western Australia, it proves to have a much darker yellow 
breast, as bright, in fact, as P. gutturalis of southern Victoria. The quantity 
of black on the tail is made a distinguishing feature between the eastern and 
western forms, but the island specimen comes between. P. occidentalis has .75 
inch (the tip) black, P. gutturalis 1.8 inch (two-thirds) and the specimen under 
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