NORTHERN FANTAIL. 
three, and at the same time perfectly obvious forms, separable in every detail, 
are lumped in, so that no description of the “species” is possible, unless it be in 
general terms which would not disqualify other accepted species. 
When I received specimens from Melville Island I named them : 
RMpidura setosa melvillensis. 
“ Differs from typical R. s. isura (Derby) in being brown not blue-grey 
above. Melville Island.” 
Later Witmer Stone showed that Gould’s isura were all from PortEssington, 
though the “North-west Coast” had been given in the original description; of 
course, Port Essington is on the north-west coast of Australia, so that our later 
restriction of the name simply misled ourselves, but did not indicate any 
mistake on Gould’s part. 
I then named the north-west form : 
Rhipidura setora ( sa ) tormenti. 
“ Differs from R. s. isura (from Port Essington) in being lighter above, 
and in having a longer bill and longer tail. Point Torment, North-west 
Australia.” 
Specimens were received which I named : 
Setosura setosa macgillimayi. 
“ Differs from S. s. superciliosa (Ramsay) in being lighter above, not so • 
spotted on the chest ; abdomen lighter buff, and in having a narrower bill. 
Leichhardt River, Queensland.” 
As an alternative name I now propose Setosura setosa davidi nom. nov. 
for preceding, as there is a prior Rhipidura macgillivrayi Sharpe, Proc. ZooL 
Soc. ( Lond .), 1881, p. 789, 1882. 
The subspecies admitted in Australia are: 
Setosura setosa isura (Gould). 
Northern Territory. 
Series are not yet available for the certain distinction of melvillensis . 
Setosura setosa tormenti (Mathews). 
North-west Australia. 
Setosura setosa macgillivrayi (Mathews). 
Western Queensland. 
Setosura setosa superciliosa (Ramsay). 
Queensland (Rockingham Bay district).. 
Extra-limital forms not accurately determined. 
31 
