THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Mr. Sandland wrote from Balah, South Australia : “ H. cauta is rare 
and extremely shy and only occurs in thick scrub.” 
Mr. J. W. Mellor has also written me : “ Some difference of opinion has 
arisen regarding this bird ; I always took the large bird found on Eyre’s 
Peninsula to be H. pyrrhopygia, but if it be H. cauta then it is about the most 
timid and cautious bird that can be met with ; it moves about in the thick 
bushes and creeps through the growth like a mouse, and when it has to cross 
an open space it puts its head down and half runs, half flies across the space, 
only to dart into the next bush and out on the other side and repeat the 
performance over and over again ; its movements being too quick to get a snap- 
shot at in such close quarters and even when shot, the bird, if only wounded, 
will dart beneath the leaves, sticks and hides itself. I came upon them a couple 
of miles inland from Arno Bay in Spencer’s Gulf on the Eyre’s Peninsula side ; 
here the stunted eucalypts and broom bush gave good shelter, and the bird 
would make known its whereabouts by a long sweet whistle, very loud for 
the size of the bird, this I would answer, and the bird would answer back and 
I would get nearer and nearer, until within a few yards and the bird would 
at last dart mouse-like from beneath a bush and thread its way through bush 
after bush, never taking to the wing above the low bushes. The note of the 
bird is a sweet full song, somewhat like that of a canary, which, I believe, is 
only uttered by the male. The Kangaroo Island bird is smaller and its habits 
are less wary and frightened.” 
A. G. Campbell, recording the birds of Kangaroo Island, wrote : 
“ H. cauta. On all the uplands the thick shrubby vegetation gave cover to 
numerous pairs of this bird. Many had full-grown young, while two dome- 
shaped nests, rather small in proportion to the bird, were found ready for eggs. 
The male bird is a pretty songster, and always attracts notice by his strong- 
throated warblings. The female is less brightly marked, and the young is 
distinguished by a light fawn-coloured throat and chest, though it has the 
dark centred feathers of the older birds.” 
A. J. Campbell, a little later, wrote of Hylacola pyrrhopygia : “ This rare 
bird was recently found in the Dandenongs, near Melbourne.” Mr. W. E. 
Molesworth forwards another specimen, which he procured at Lethbridge 
last May. He states : “I have flushed this bird in a piece of country a few 
acres in extent, in the centre of a stringy-bark forest, where grass trees 
(. Xanthorrkoea ) are growing quite alone on sandy soil. The birds are hard to 
flush, but can be traced by their singing or calling to each other.” 
Whitlock, dealing with the birds of the Stirling Ranges, South-west 
Australia, wrote : “ Another interesting species was Hylacola pyrrhopygia 
(Chestnut-rumped Ground Wren). This species was local, and inhabited 
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