THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
cctllainus. I made a special study of this bird on this account. It is very 
scarce and shy in its habits, being exceedingly difficult to get near as it darts 
off into the bushes as soon as it sees or hears the slightest movement, or crack 
of a stick or twig ; the full-plumaged males are exceedingly shy and wary. 
On one occasion I saw two males chasing one another, apparently having a 
quarrel over some female ; they put up their little blue crests and stuck out their 
ear-coverts and darted across my path like flashes of light, and were gone into 
the thickets instantaneously. They generally inhabit the thick undergrowth 
where tea tree or mallee and peppermint meet the blue bush country, and the 
thick undergrowth of the latter, beneath the higher foliage of the former, affords 
good shelter, while for a higher perch they fly into the thick bushy-topped 
tea trees where they are soon lost to view r . M. assimilis is to be found in the 
same locality and M. ivhitei is seen in company with them ; their call is a 
silvery warble something like that of M. assimilis, but given in a more tremolo 
voice, giving it a more loose fibre; it seems to be poured forth in a kind of 
silvery circlet as it were, and lasting for a few moments only, and the bird 
is off again like the twinkling of an eye ; the notes are always made while the 
bird is on a twig or bough, the head and throat held up and thrown forward 
while emitting the calls ; the hen I also noted made some of these calls like her 
mate, but not so oft repeated. The old birds were just mating in August, and 
w T ould probably be breeding soon.” 
Ashby has lately concluded: “ M. whitei. Several ornithologists have con- 
sidered this a good species, and the careful comparison of the material in my hands 
supported this contention, but I have now had an opportunity of examining 
seven more specimens of M. callainus Gould in Captain S. A. White’s collection. 
“ I find that some of the specimens collected on the west side of Spencer 
Gulf and the Gawler Ranges so closely approach the Port Germein (east side 
of the Gulf) form that they are not separable. Those specimens of M. 
callainus collected in the Everard and Musgrave Ranges show more purple in 
the throat and a deeper blue in the abdomen. The larger material suggests 
a transition into deeper and more purple shades of blue as the distance from 
Spencer Gulf becomes greater, and therefore Campbell’s M. whitei must stand 
as a synonym of M. callainus Gould.” 
At the present time, with our present knowledge, we then have three 
well-marked forms and one or two ill-defined and doubtful, thus 
Malurus melanotus melanotus Gould. 
South Australian Mallee. 
doubtfully distinct is 
Malurus melanotus victories Mathews. 
Victorian Mallee. 
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