YELLOW-THROATED SCRUB WREN. 
its bulky nest from the ‘ Lawyer ’ vines, and from slender boughs, so that they 
are out of harm’s way : sometimes they are placed eight or ten feet from the 
ground and others at a height of twenty feet. They sway about in the wind 
and look like bunches of dark rubbish that has collected in the trees after a flood 
has passed through. The nest is composed of dark rootlets and tendrils, very 
long and loosely made, being sometimes two feet and over, with a hole in the 
side, lined with fine shreds and feathers. I have also taken this bird on the 
Tweed River at Tumbulgum, and also in the Tuggera District between Sydney 
and Newcastle. The bird is very inquisitive in nature and will come hopping 
out of the thick undergrowth when its call is imitated with the lips : it keeps 
mostly to the ground, prying beneath the fallen leaves and herbage for insects, 
and is a very useful bird in this respect.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby has also written : “I found this bird very common in 
the Blackall Ranges in Queensland and found a large number of their nests 
hanging to the festoons of ‘ Lawyer ’ vines. I do not remember seeing any in 
any other position. One ‘ Lawyer ’ stretching across a small rivulet had three 
of these nests on it, all built by this bird but two were occupied by Acanthizas. 
These nests are beautifully made and quite covered over except for a small round 
aperture in the upper portion of the side, an overhanging eave being built over 
the hole, I concluded, to suit the heavy tropical rains, while in some a little 
piece of bark was placed just inside the mouth of the hole apparently with a view 
to preventing the eggs rolling out as the nest swings in the wind. As the nest is 
suspended in loose trailing vines it would no doubt at times be blown into almost 
a horizontal position and therefore the clever little birds have adapted the nest 
to these conditions.” 
This beautiful species was known as S. citreogularis until Sharpe revived 
Latham’s name barbata, but which proved to be preoccupied, but unfortunately 
Gould’s name was still invalid as Stephens had provided a substitute \ naming 
the species M. lathami. This specific name was then used in conjunction with 
the genus name Sericornis in my “ Reference List ” in 1912, but although I 
was adopting a lumping policy, I was doubtful of its wisdom and therefore 
proposed N eosericornis for this species alone. I admitted three subspecies as : 
Sericornis lathami lathami (Stephens). 
New South Wales. 
Sericornis lathami cairnsi Mathews. 
Differs from S. 1. lathami in its darker coloration above and more brown 
(especially on the head) and darker flank coloration, and is also less : wing 64 mm. 
Cairns, North Queensland.” 
North Queensland. 
Sericornis lathami intermedia Mathews. 
493 
