Genus — S AM U E L A . 
Samuela Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. I., 
pt. 5, p. 112, Dec. 24th, 1912. Type (by 
original designation) ... ... ... Ginclosoma cinnamomeus Gould. 
The diagnosis I gave when I separated this genus reads : “ Differs from Ginclo- 
soma in its weaker hill, legs and feet and in its differently shaped tail and wing ; 
the tail is comparatively short, and rounded, not long and fan-shaped ; the 
wing has the second primary almost equal to the succeeding three which are 
longest and subequal, and longer than the sixth ; in Ginclosoma the second 
primary is noticeably shorter than the third and also shorter than the sixth 
while the first primary is proportionately longer than in that genus.” 
As I have pointed out, this group of desert birds living in the interior 
of Australia have altered more from the more coastal typical Ginclosoma of 
southern Australia than the form at present restricted to the mountains of 
New Guinea. 
The birds have become smaller with longer wings, shorter tail, and thinner 
bills. It is possible that these represent better the size of the original stock, 
and that Ginclosoma in the south and Ajax in the extreme north have each 
become larger, and that the coincidence in size, etc., is due to convergence. It 
is certain that Cinclosoma must have been a very early migrant into Australia 
to have penetrated into Tasmania, and also into West Australia from the 
south, as apparently that is the mode of occurrence of the second species which 
extends into the west along the south. The interior forms here dealt with 
range farther north across the interior from east to west, and are replaced in 
the north coastal districts by Drymodes superciliaris , which has a similar 
peculiar range that will be noted under that species. 
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