YELLOW-BREASTED SHRIKE ROBIN. 
the hens found I did not disturb the nest they would sit on it until I touched 
them, and then simply hop off and stay within a couple of feet of me. The 
cock would come up, but would never come so near as the hens. At Ringwood 
I found a colony breeding. In one gully I found no fewer than ten nests, 
four of which had two or three eggs, four had young, and the other two empty 
but newly built. These were all in a small space of bush, about twenty by 
twenty feet. Previously the nests I had found had been at least fifteen to 
twenty yards apart.” 
As above recorded, the typical form received four specific names at its 
first discovery ; later Stephens renamed it, and Vieillot described a specimen 
brought back by the French explorers as Muscicapa griseicapilla. This was 
synonymised in my “List,” and the type locality was selected as New South 
Wales, as in the original description it was stated to have come from “ Timor,” 
collected by Mauge. Misled by Pucheran’s misidentification of the type as 
“ Muscicapa gularis Quoy et Gaimard,” I removed it from this place and 
recommended its use for the latter species ; but Mr. Tom Carter wrote me that 
my conclusions disagreed as to the locality selected, and reconsidering the 
matter, I found Pucheran had been mistaken, and that Vieillot’s description 
undoubtedly applied to the present form, and that the locality “ New South 
Wales ” should be maintained. 
When Swainson prepared his Classification of Birds he gave new names 
to many birds quite unnecessarily, and in this case he provided Eopsaltria 
flavicollis for Lewin’s pi. 23, so this name also refers to the typical form. A 
little later Gould described a female from New South Wales, on account of its 
smaller size, as E. parvulus, so that no fewer than eight synonyms are applicable 
to the typical subspecies. 
Nevertheless it is a variable species, showing well marked subspecies, and 
this was recognised by Ramsay, who sent specimens to Gould which he considered 
different. Thereupon Gould re-examined the species, and described Ramsay’s 
form as a new species, and also named an intermediate from the eastern part 
of New South Wales and southern portion of Queensland. The chief character 
of these two “ species ” was the brighter yellow coloration of the rump and 
the larger bill of the more northern form. Of course, these were simply sub- 
specific features, and though Gould called them “ species,” he regarded them 
as geographical representatives of the one form. Gadow, indeed, lumped 
all as one species without any distinction ; but Campbell wrote : “ Australian 
workers and field ornithologists, at all events, are hardly prepared to accept 
that verdict. There are two species undoubtedly.” A few years later Le 
Souef described Eopsaltria jacksoni , separating it from E. magnirostris, writing : 
“ This bird differs in having a smaller beak, more white on the throat and 
291 
