THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
specimens in which the yellow tint which pervades the centre of the abdomen 
has given place to grey or greyish-white.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby’s notes read : “In the mangroves of the Outer Harbour, 
Port Adelaide, this bird creeps about the roots like a mouse, usually without 
making a sound. The whole locality where the mangroves grow is at high 
tide covered with water, but at low tide is a sombre waste of reeking mud cut 
into numberless deep ditches or channels by the receding tide. The only sound 
to be heard is the buzzing of mosquitoes and the slight noise made by the walking 
of numerous small crabs or the dropping of the fruits of the mangroves. Some 
times the Sericornis creeps up high into the mangroves. In common 
with others of the same genus they are possessed of great curiosity and will 
come almost within arm’s length to get a good view of the intruder. At Easter 
they uttered but seldom the sharp chirp common to most of the genus ; possibly 
they would be more talkative in spring. In Kangaroo Island they frequented 
localities near the coast or in thick shrubs only a few feet high and at bottom 
of valley at Middle River in thick bushes, but a very different locality to the 
Mangroves of Outer Harbour A comparison was made between these 
birds and West Australian specimens of maculata with the result that the Outer 
Harbour birds were similar to the Kangaroo Island ones but considerably darker 
in all the upper parts and tail, a rich or deep vandyke brown, than the Port 
Lincoln specimens which were uniformly above a grey brown, much paler. 
The Western birds were similar above to the Port Lincoln ones but underneath 
strongly cream instead of white and smaller.” 
Mr. J. W. Mellor writes: “This is the bird generally representing the genus 
in South Australia. I have taken it in all parts of Kangaroo Island, also on 
many of the smaller islands about the southern coast. I have also noted 
it on Eyre Peninsula, and at the Reedbeds near Adelaide. At the former 
place I have taken it at the extreme southern end and at Warunda in the interior. 
It keeps to the ground and does good work in eating up destructive insect 
pests. Its nest is placed in a bush on the ground and is domed.” 
Mr. Tom Carter’s notes read : “ The Spotted Scrub-Wren occurs through 
the greater part of the South-west corner of West Australia, but can nowhere 
be called abundant, and according to my observations is more numerous in 
the coastal districts than it is inland. It is fairly common on the coast, at the 
Margaret River, and about Albany. The greatest distance inland at which 
any of these birds have been observed by me was on the Pallinup River, about 
ninety miles from the coast. On one occasion only, a pair of this species was 
seen at Broome Hill (Sept. 21, 1910). It is a quiet unobstrusive bird keeping- 
well to the cover of scrub. The subspecies, Warren River Scrub- Wren, was 
noted by me to be fairly common in the thick scrub growing alongside the 
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