BUFF-RUMPED TIT. 
Mr. A. G. Campbell writes : “In vicinity of Melbourne always nests in a 
tussock of grass or on the side of a bank. Common about the Grampians.” 
When Cleland investigated the numbers of the birds in the Pilliga Scrubs 
New South Wales, he recorded : “ Buff-tailed Tit Warbler. A few birds — 13 in 
all counted, but there were evidently considerably more— were seen in the more 
open forest country during the trip. Bill, pharynx and legs black : iris whitish 
with a pale yellow tint. No entozoa detected in the one bird shot. The reddish- 
brown eyed Acanthizas seem to form a natural group separated from those 
with whitish irides, such as A. chrysorrhoa, A. reguloides, and A. uropygialis 
The restricted range of this minute species did not suggest much subspecific 
differentiation, but as a matter of fact comparatively it shows marked distinc- 
tions and at the present mi'nute I allow six subspecies in its limited distribution. 
The species was described from New South Wales and when North drew up 
his account of Nests and Eggs he wrote his ideas of subspecies, the most note- 
worthy pronouncement of that date. I therefore transcribe this nearly twenty- 
year old recognition of Australian subspecies in North’s words : “ There is a 
variation in the depth of colour in examples of G. reguloides obtained from 
different parts of the continent. Specimens collected by Mr. George Masters 
at Gayndah, on the Burnett River, Queensland, have only a slight ochraceous 
tinge to the yellow rump and upper tail-coverts, and the breast, flanks and 
abdomen are pale yellow. Examples collected by Mr. Edwin Ashby at Upper 
Sturt, Woodside, and Callington, in the hills south-east of Adelaide, are much 
darker than the New South Wales specimens, and may be distinguished from 
typical examples of G. reguloides by the richer and deeper ochraceous-buff 
rump, upper tail-coverts, basal portion and tips of tail-feathers, and, in two 
specimens, the more distinct rufous forehead and deeper ochraceous-buff under- 
surface. . . . Should it be necessary to distinguish the latter darker ipace, I 
would suggest the name G. australis ... I particularly wish to point out that 
I regard this darker coloured race from South Australia only as a geographical 
variation of the typical form of G. reguloides. Likewise, also, all the races 
described in this catalogue, for which I have proposed names, and which appear 
in the text of the letterpress only, and not as head-lines to a species. They 
are, in my opinion, however, far more entitled to full specific recognition than 
many others that are recognised as such, say, for instance, A. apicalis and 
A. diemenensis, which are only really geographical variations of A. pusilla , 
and not distinct species. . . . Trinomial nomenclature has not been adopted 
by Australian ornithologists. ... It is useful, however, and has this 
advantage : one knows at a glance that the added trinomial refers only to a 
geographical variation of a typical form ; whereas in binomial nomenclature 
one may possibly discover, after the loss of much time in searching out an 
477 
