THE BIRDS OE AUSTRALIA. 
The technical history of this species has developed within the last few 
years, and mainly due to the local enterprise of Australian ornithologists. 
Probably this is to some extent due to the greater diligence of field 
workers in recent years, as this bird is a skulker, and all agree very easily 
overlooked. 
As noted above, the species was described from Sydney, but was recorded 
from Tasmania eighty years ago in the first list of Tasmanian birds pub- 
lished. No variation seems to have been noticed (if specimens were com- 
pared), until a form was found living in the Victorian Mallee, when it was 
distinguished by Campbell as a distinct species. Previously, a different 
looking bird had been also described as a distinct species from a very far 
distant locality, the North-west Cape, and recently it was suggested that 
it was still worthy of specific rank. I might here observe that the status 
of some of these Central Westralian birds will not be settled until many 
years have passed and long series have been studied, including plumage 
stages from nesting to adult, and also seasonal changes considered. 
When I drew up my “Reference List” in 1912, I was following the 
continental method as then current in English first-class usage, and accepted 
geographical representatives as of subspecific value, whether the difference 
was slight and confined to obvious colour depths, or whether the difference 
was marked and was due to more than one factor. Dr. Lowe, of the British 
Museum, has recently brought to the notice of British ornithologists that there 
is an essential difference between a geographical subspecies and a geo- 
graphical representative of more than subspecific value, a point I was the 
first to indicate through my studies in Australian birds, and which has been 
noted more than once in the course of this work. Consequently I am in 
accord with Lowe’s remarks, on account of my greater experience of such 
problems, as they have commonly occurred to me. However, these pro- 
blems cannot be dismissed without much more study and material than is 
at present available. 
Campbell’s description of the Mallee Emu-Wren reads : “ The Mallee 
bird differs from the ordinary Emu-Wren of the more southern parts of Victoria 
and Tasmania by its general lighter colouring, by its smaller dimensions, 
except the bill, which is larger, and of the six loose feathers of the tail being 
less filamented. It appears to be an intermediate form between the common 
Emu-Wren and the Rufous Emu-Wren of North-west Australia.” 
Later, when Carter recorded his meeting with the Emu-Wren in South- 
west Australia, A. J. Campbell added in a footnote : “ The Western 
Australian form of the Emu-Wren differs from the eastern bird by the general 
upper -surface being lighter coloured (greyish instead of brownish), and by 
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