THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Adult female. General colour of the upper-surface mouse-brown, including the top of 
the head, sides of the face, hind-neck, back, upper tail-coverts and wings ; tail 
lavender-blue with obsolete cross-bars, some of the feathers edged with white at 
the tips ; lores and short feathers round the eye bright chestnut ; throat and 
remainder of under-surface pale grey with more or less white on the middle of the 
abdomen ; under wing-coverts pale cinnamon-buff ; under-surface of flight-quills 
hair-brown ; lower aspect of tail similar to its upper-surface. Bill dark brown. 
Feet brown, eyes dark brown. Total length 132 mm. ; culmen 8, wing 48, tail 65, 
tarsus 25. Figured. Collected at Lake Kirk, West Australia, on the 28th of 
October, 1905. 
Nest. Dome-shaped, with side entrance. 
Eggs. Clutch, three, white, spotted with reddish-brown at the top. 16 mm. by 12. 
Breeding-season. September to November. 
It is doubtful whether this species is not the “ most beautiful ” of the genus 
as christened by Gould, wdio recorded : “ For a knowledge of this species I 
am indebted to the researches of Gilbert, who informs me that £ it appears to 
be exclusively confined to the thickets of the interior of Western Australia ; 
in habits and manners it greatly resembles the other members of the genus, 
but its nest is somewhat smaller than that of either of them.’ ” 
Mr. Tom Carter states : “ This species appears to be very local in its 
habitat and rarely seen. The only occasion on which it came under my notice 
was August 28th, 1908, when a party of five or six were seen in some scrub on 
a sand-plain, some miles east of Broome Hill. They were very w r ild and shy of 
approach, but I obtained one male and two females, which were in full moult. 
The same locality was visited on several occasions but no more birds seen there.” 
Masters’ notes, published by North : “ It is an inland and by no means 
common species, remarkably shy, and never observed in within less than sixty 
miles of the coast. Those procured were frequenting the margins of belts of 
‘ marlock ’ trees, which grow in patches or belts resembling mallee scrubs, and 
vary from five to ten feet in height.” 
Milligan has given a good account of the discovery of this species in the 
Stirling Ranges, especially dealing with the identity of the species, writing : 
“ Although there is not, perhaps, any doubt that the birds we secured w r ere 
M. pulcherrimus, nevertheless there are some minor differences between them 
and Gould’s bird that it may be desirable to mention. In the first place, the 
total length of Gould’s bird is given as 5J inches, and the tail as inches. 
In the Stirling Range bird the total length is J of an inch greater, but the total 
measurements are equal, thus confirming the difference to the body length, 
wdiich is material. Gould’s measurements, however, are not always reliable, 
and as an example of such let me mention a similar inaccuracy in Gould’s 
recorded measurements of M. elegans. Again, Gould gives the measurements 
112 
