THE BIRDS OE AUSTRALIA. 
from Hobart. It was noticed there in the seventies, and from thence extended 
gradually to the midlands and along the east coast. About fifteen years ago 
it was first seen in the Ross district, and is now more abundant perhaps in the 
gorse flats in the valley of the Macquarie than anywhere else. To reach this 
part of the island it had high ranges to cross, probably taking in the flat lands 
above the Derwent, at Bridgewater, in its migration, for there it has for many 
years been firmly established. It delights in the gorse-covered paddocks 
on the Macquarie, and in the breeding-season every little isolated patch has 
its pair, with the young troop accompanying them, the male bird uttering 
its peculiar, lonely little note — 4 Pianng ’ — by way of warning to its brood. . . . 
In the locality of Falmouth it frequents the sand-dunes, open shore paddocks, 
raised pebble beaches, etc. It may be seen close to the tide line, flitting from 
boulder to boulder, and darting up several feet into the air at passing flies and 
insects. . . . The habits of this Chat are most interesting. During the 
breeding-season, when the female is aroused from its nest, it flies to the ground, 
and with extended and fluttering wings runs and tumbles along in the quaintest 
manner, trying by its gestures as a wounded bird to lead the traveller from its 
nest. It not only does not shun the presence of man, but rather courts it, as I 
have observed it on several occasions in the middle of the military camp at Ross.” 
This species was described under the genus name Acanthiza by Jardine 
and Selby, and ten years afterward Gould proposed the new genus Epthianura 
for it. Six years later Lesson, who did not recognise Gould’s new genus nor 
Jardine and Selby’s species, renamed it as a species of Fluvicola, giving it 
the appropriate specific name leucocephala. Almost simultaneously Brehm 
described a new genus and species, calling it Cinura torquata ; these two names 
are both synonyms of the typical form. No subspecies were proposed until 
I arranged my “ Reference List,” when I distinguished three : 
Epthianura albifrons albifrons (Jardine and Selby). 
New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia. 
Epthianura albifrons tasmanica Mathews. 
Tasmania. 
“ Differs from E. a. albifrons in its darker coloration throughout.” 
Epthianura albifrons westralensis Mathews. 
Wilson’s Inlet, South-west Australia. 
“ Differs from E. a. albifrons in its paler coloration throughout.” 
These three I maintained in my 1913 “ List ” without alteration, and 
I have seen no comment upon them in any place. 
Legge says this bird was only noticed in Tasmania in the seventies, but 
it was recorded as a Tasmanian bird in the fifties in the Papers and Proceedings 
of the Royal Society of Van Diemen’s Land, Vol. III., pt. i., p. 145, January 1855. 
330 
