THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
of tail whitish at the base, the remaining portion similar to its upper-surface. Eyes 
reddish ; feet and legs yellow, soles bright yellow, bill purple-horn. Total length 
180 mm. , culmen 8, wing 40, tail 122, tarsus 21. Figured. Collected on Dirk 
Hartog Island, West Australia, on the 7th of May, 1916, and is the type of Stipiturus 
malachurus hartogi. (Bottom figure.) 
Adult female. General colour of the upper-surface drab-grey with dark brown, or blackish 
elongated centres to the feathers, including the top of head, back, and wings, 
becoming more uniform on the lower-back, and rump ; flight-quills dark hair- 
brown with pale edges both on the outer and inner webs ; tail dark brown, the 
webs of the feathers transparent and disintegrated ; rictal bristles black with white 
bases ; eye-ring whitish ; sides of face drab-grey with whitish shaft-streaks ; lores, 
throat, breast, abdomen, sides of body, under tail-coverts, and under wing-coverts 
pale cinnamon-buff with blackish bases to most of the feathers ; under-surface 
of flight-quills hair-brown ; base of tail white ; the remainder similar to its upper- 
surface. Eyes pale reddish ; feet brownish, legs yellow ; bill purple-horn. Total 
length 150 mm. ; culmen 7, wing 40, tail 100, tarsus 19. Figured. Collected 
on Dirk Hartog Island, West Australia, on the 28th of April, 1916. (Middle right- 
hand figure.) 
Immature female ( nearly adult). General colour of the upper-surface drab-grey with blackish 
centres to the feathers and dark dusky bases including the top of the head, back, 
and wings ; flight-quills blackish with pale margins, the innermost secondaries 
somewhat darker than the primaries and edged with fulvous ; upper tail-coverts 
pale at the tips ; tail feathers blackish ; lores whitish ; sides of face grey, more or 
less speckled with white ; rictal bristles black ; chin, throat, breast, sides of body, 
abdomen, thighs and under-tail coverts cinnamon like the under wing-coverts ; 
under-surface of flight-quills blackish as is also the lower aspect of the tail. Bill 
purple horn. Eyes hazel. Feet and legs purplish flesh. Collected at Gnowangerup, 
South-west Australia on February 13th, 1919. 
N est. Round, with side entrance, loosely put together and constructed of grass and lined 
with finer grass. 4 to 6 inches high by 3 wide. 
Eggs. Clutch three to four, white freckled or spotted all over with bright red, especially 
at the larger end. 17 mm. by 12. 
Breeding-season. August to December. 
General Davies gave a full account of this bird, writing : “ Having 
had the good fortune to procure fine specimens of the male and female of 
a singular bird from New South Wales which the natives of that country call 
the Merion Binnion or Cassowary Bird. . . All the information I have 
been able to procure respecting it, from Governor Philip, Colonel Nepean, 
and other gentlemen, who resided some years in New South Wales, is, that 
it is found about Sidney and Botany Bay in marshy places, abounding with 
long grass and fine rushes, in which it hides itself very dexterously ; that, 
when disturbed, its flight is very short, like that of a grasshopper ; and that 
it no sooner alights than it runs with such great agility that many who have 
been confident of their having covered birds with their hats, have, to their 
great surprise, seen them again take wing at no great distance, so that they 
are always difficult to catch. . . The natives of New South Wales give 
134 
