THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
of the country becomes colonized. It passes much of its time on the ground, 
hopping about with great celerity, and with its tail elevated considerably 
above the level of its back. Specimens were also obtained by Gilbert in Western 
Australia, from whose notes I learn that it is there an inhabitant of the under- 
wood and the thickest scrub ; and that “ it possesses a very sweet and melodious 
song, which it generally utters while perched on the extreme topmost branch 
of a small scrubby tree, and having repeated it two or three times, dives down 
into the impenetrable bush. While feeding it utters a weak, piping, call-like 
note. I never saw it fairly on the wing, for it seems averse to flying, but generally 
prefers creeping from bush to bush, and even if closely hunted merely flits a 
few yards.” 
Captain S. A. White states : “ I have found this bird in a variety of 
situations but it is a great lover of the dry country, where it frequents the salt- 
bush plains and the low scrub alike. Its very sweet song is a great feature of 
that lone land. It is a naturally shy bird, but very local and from my experience 
they keep within a thousand yards radius for a long time. They breed in 
September and October in the northern country.” 
Mr. A. G. Campbell sent me some time ago an account which may be 
published although the Mallee is now more familiar to the ears of ornithologists 
than it was when this was written and I find that many extra-Australian workers 
are still ignorant of the exact nature of this term : “In the Mallee, a remarkable 
area of dwarf vegetation occupying the dry north-western corner of Victoria, 
(and adjacent portions of South Australia and New South Wales) this species 
lives. Unlike other members of the genus [it was then classed in Sericornis], 
the male bird has a melodious song, which it pours forth after the manner of a 
Hylacola from the topmost twig of some convenient bush. If disturbed it darts 
down into the cover but reappears a few yards further on. The species is only 
found in better class Mallee, that is, in the good areas which run in belts of 
varying width where a stronger soil supports a rich growth of under-scrub — 
acacias, dwarf casuarenas, tea trees and many plants characteristic of hot 
areas, opening out occasionally into rich grass plains or thick pine ( Gallitris ) 
ridges. In such country are found Maluras melanotus , Ptilotis, Glyciphila 
albifrons and Myzomela nigra. In great contrast is this class of country to the 
real desert or sandy Mallee where there is no vegetation but dwarf mallee 
eucalypts of two or three kinds and the only bird life Oreoica cristata, Pardalotus 
xanthopygus , Lapoa ocellata and perhaps Drymodes brunneipygius. These 
four species, of course, are found throughout all classes of Mallee but 
they are the ones that venture farthest into the desert. In fact no part 
is seemingly too poor that the two first mentioned cannot make a home 
therein.” 
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