THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
alarm we could not dislodge them. Returning to this spot again later in the 
day, a party of wrens was surprised, and we secured a fully adult male, some 
immature males and a female, which proved to be M. callainus. It was several 
days later and still further south, just on the edge of the malia (which extends 
down to the head of Eyre’s Peninsula), that we again came in touch with this 
bird, and this time they were in a large party, but very shy, in a dry 
watercourse, the bed of which was covered in deep, loose and coarse sand, and 
in this watercourse, which was five to six hundred yards wide, grew many of 
the picturesque drooping foliaged ‘ scrubby mulgas.’ These bushes were in a 
mass of blossom, and the thick foliage gave good shelter to the Maluri which 
darted from bush to bush in follow-my-leader fashion ; when one broke cover 
the others followed — sometimes a beautiful male bird would mount to the top 
of the bush far out, or extend his glorious mantle, utter a short trill and dart 
into cover again. There was no salt bush for some little distance from here, 
and I am of the opinion that this bird favours the low thick scrub, and that 
it only takes to the salt bush, if near, to hide when hard pressed. The next time 
we met M. callainus was on our return journey just before leaving the Ranges, 
when we again found it amongst the scrubby mulga. 
“ Dr. Morgan found this bird nesting about this time or a little previous 
to it (September), at the south end of Lake Torrens, but we did not come across 
a nest ; we put that down to the fact of rain having fallen early in the season 
around the southern edge of Lake Torrens, and Dr. Morgan informs me that 
they did not have the very strong gales which we experienced during the 
whole of our trip further west.” 
He later added : “ The type locality is the western side of Spencer’s 
Gulf, and that from Port Germein, on the eastern side, has been regarded as 
a distinct subspecies, but this seems a very doubtful one. Apparently 
M. callainus ranges westward right to the West Australian border and 
inland as far north as I have explored. M. melanotus was recorded by 
North from the interior, but this bird was intended.” 
The restricted range of this species still shows the variation so noticeable 
in this group. Thus Gould described the bird from the Western Belts of the 
Murray, South Australia, and then later described a new species collected by 
Mr. Samuel White, M. callainus. Campbell in his Nests and Eggs stated that 
a better name than callainus would have been whitei, and the next year proposed 
M. whitei for a bird he considered different from M. callainus. 
In my Reference List I admitted five subspecies writing : 
Malurus melanotus melanotus Gould. 
South Australia. 
Malurus melanotus victories Mathews. 
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