THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
a few dry straws. The female sat very closely on two eggs. She allowed 
my wife almost to tread upon her. The bird’s coloration harmonised so 
wonderfully with the dead timber and bark that it was difficult to 
detect her.” 
Chandler’s notes read : “ Often met with in sapling mallee (on the Kow 
Plains, Victoria). We had an interesting experience with a female of this species. 
A nest was found on 26th September at the foot of a mallee sapling ; it contained 
two young birds. When the nestlings were handled the female came within 
three inches of us as we knelt on the ground. At short intervals, while running 
round us, the bird emitted a puffing sound, like that made by wind being blown 
through pursed lips. A nest containing incubated eggs was obtained near 
the end of September. These birds are fond of working over ground where 
there has been a recent fire.” 
Some birds with an east to west range in the interior of Australia show 
easily recognisable subspecies, while others do not. In the present case I 
separated the western form as C. c. dundasi as being darker, the red back more 
extensive and the bill shorter. This may still be recognised, so that the two 
forms hitherto listed by me can be maintained, C. c. castanotum Gould from 
East Australia (inhabiting the interior of New South Wales, Victoria and South 
Australia) and G. c. dundasi Mathews, West Australia, inhabiting the south- 
western interior only. 
194 
