THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Gould maintained the species name galactotes but removed it to the genus 
Sphenceacus , misusing that name for Indian species whereas it had been pro- 
posed for African birds, and wrote : “ This is a scarce species in New South 
Wales, the few individuals I have seen being from the grassy districts of the 
Liverpool Plains ; in all probability, however, it ranges along the eastern 
and over the whole of the northern portion of Australia.” 
Gilbert s notes inform me that he found it “ tolerably abundant on the 
islands at the head of Van Diemen’s Gulf, where it inhabits the long grass 
or rushes growing in or adjacent to the swamps ; it is so shy that it is very 
rarely seen ; when closely hunted it takes wing, but flying appears to be a 
difficult action at all times ; at least I have never seen it sustain a flight of 
more than a hundred yards at the utmost, and even in that short distance it 
seemed ready to sink into the grass with fatigue. The only note I have heard 
it emit is a harsh and rapidly repeated chutch. The stomachs of those I dis- 
sected were extremely muscular, and contained the remains of insects of various 
kinds and what appeared to be vegetable fibres.” 
Macgillivray, recording the bird-life of North Queensland, wrote : “A 
female of the Tawny Grass-Bird was shot in the long grass in one of the open 
pockets on the 8th November, and several were flushed after this at different 
times up to the commencement of the wet season, when the grass began 
to grow longer and denser; it was then a difficult matter to disturb them. 
Occasional in swampy places along the Archer River.” 
A little later Campbell, reporting upon birds from Torres Straits’ Islands, 
wrote : “ One male and three females. Seemingly identical with specimens 
procured in Northern Territory and North-west Australia. The species shows 
a preference for coastal regions and islands adjacent thereto. This is the 
first record of the bird being found in the locality of Cape York. Mr. H. G. 
Barnard and I, when at Cardwell, 1916, flushed this species on the flats of 
long grass among the timber and obtained a specimen.” 
I wrote in 1912, when I proposed Megalurus alisteri as a new species : 
“ The name hitherto used for this bird has been M. galactotes Temminck. 
Reference to the original figure and description shows this to be inapplicable. 
The figure (Plan. Color. cCOis , Vol. I., ll e livr., pi. 65, fig. 1, 1823) gives a 
bird disagreeing entirely in general coloration with the Australian bird, and 
especially in having the head striped distinctly with black, no white eyebrow, 
and the tail spotted near the end with black and having a white tip. The 
locality given by Temminck (New Holland) must, therefore, be erroneous, 
and I find that Temminck’ s figure is almost certainly that of an African species 
of Cisticola, and moreover, agrees quite well with the bird at present known 
as C. eryihrogerys Riippell.” 
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