TRICOLOURED CHAT. 
belonging to the cases I and 2, with their feathers with varied colours, are 
distinguished also by the presence of new feathers, not red-coloured, but pale 
yellow-brown (in the same part of the plumage) ; but in case 3 there are no 
instances of mixed feathers at all. But a specimen was met with which had 
quite red crown-feathers as pins, mixed in with new and quite pale yellow- 
brown ones side by side. The appearance of the feather (from the head) is 
as follows : The base dark brown, after that a white, uncoloured part (though 
not in all cases), and then the pale yellow-brown part that forms the surface 
colour. Where red edgings are present these colours are found behind the 
red. But where this colour is augmented and comprises about half the feather 
the pale yellow-brown has disappeared. After the red part the white follows, 
sometimes very slightly developed. Feathers are found with a very differently 
developed red in the pale yellow-brown colour, and even only with white spots 
mixed in the dark part of the feather. In the breast-feathers, on the other 
hand, dark spots appear in the white part beneath the red one. Whether 
the red in such partly coloured feathers is not able to expand, as is said by 
Dr. Strong, when the feather, though grown out, is not old, is a question to 
which I have not had any opportunity of giving any attention. This bird 
migrates from south of Australia to the north during the winter. The moulting 
season for Lalage takes place during or shortly before breeding, but that of 
this form seems to come later on, shortly before they migrate (in March, April, 
May). Ecological. The first time this species was observed was in Hot Spring 
in the beginning of March, and in Derby at the end of the month. The season 
had come when migratory birds began to appear in Kimberley. At the coast 
of King’s Sound the species lived in greater or smaller flocks, which got their 
food (according to specimens opened this consisted of small beetles, locusts and 
other insects) from the grass or on the part of the beach that is left exposed 
when the tide goes out. It was also common in Meda in the beginning of 
May, at Broome and in Beagle Bay in July. According to information received 
from Mr. van der Pfordten, who knew the bird life in the neighbourhood of 
Broome very well, the bird was also common there in March.” 
No subspecies were separated until in my “ Reference List ” in 1912 I 
recorded : 
Epthianura tricolor tricolor (Gould). 
New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia. 
Epthianura tricolor assimilis Mathews. 
“ Differs from E. t. tricolor in its paler coloration throughout. Lake 
Way.” 
West Australia. 
Epthianura tricolor distincta Mathews. 
VOL. IX. 
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