THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Measurements of birds in mm. : — 
Total length Wing 
Tarsus 
Bill 
Tail 
d 202 90 
24.5 
12 
98 
$ 201 86 
24 
— 
As usual with these interesting species there has been trouble with the 
names to be used ; in this case, as in many others, the French explorer’s 
specimens being described years before the birds collected at the same time or 
even earlier by English adventurous colonists, were attended to. As a rule, 
however, the English names came into use through access to specimens and 
ease of reference to the descriptions, and only lately have the earliest names 
been correctly allocated. Thus Muscicapa tricolor was named from Timor as 
collected by Mauge and was easily determined as referable to this group. 
Vigors and Horsfield described the bird from New South Wales as Bhipidura 
motacilloides, and this name was used by Gould, who separated the northern 
form as a distinct species under the name B. picata. For this species Cabanis 
proposed a new generic name, Sauloprocta, admitting the two species of Gould ; 
and, suggesting Lcucocircci laticauda was a synonym of the former, used the 
genus name Leucocirca for the species javanica. But Swainson ’ proposed 
Leucocirca for the species laticauda only, and it is certainly synonymous with 
either motacilloides or picata if his drawing and measurements are correct, 
but cannot be determined until his specimen is traced. In the Catalogue of the 
Birds in the British Museum Vieillot’s species name was utilised but no forms 
were recognised, both the Australian subspecies being lumped with the extra- 
limital laces under the name tricolor. North would not follow this, and, using 
the genus name Sauloprocta , accepted the name given to the New Ireland form 
by Quoy and Gaimard, melaleuca , as the species name. 
Hartert soon aftervard introduced the combination Bhipidura tricolor 
motacilloides, writing : “I have examined a good series of Australian skins, and 
find that they all differ at a glance — one can even feel the difference in the 
dark, as for example, on a foggy November day in London — in having very 
much smaller bills, and also a little smaller size generally. It is strange that 
this striking difference has not been more emphasised. On the other hand, 
I cannot find any constant differences to separate a supposed western smaller 
race in Australia {picata ). ” 
Ten years later Ogilvie -Grant, reporting on Dutch New Guinea birds, 
gave details of wing measurements without forming any conclusion as to the 
subspecies to be recognised. From his measurements it is obvious that such 
are available, thus : seven specimens from Port Essington measure in the 
wing 85-92 mm. and two from Victoria River, Northern Territory, 88 and 
90 mm. Two from Port Curtis 92, 98, two from New South Wales 93 and 102, 
40 
