THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
in succession, for I have found, on pulling a nest to pieces, an egg, generally- 
addled, among the dry lining of the nest.” 
Captain S. A. White has written me : “ I have taken this bird in South 
Australia as far west as Robe ; it may extend to Kingston, but believe this 
would be the limit of this form. It is exceedingly plentiful in the sand dunes 
along the coast line and its peculiar sharp call is to be heard all over the 
place amongst the sword-grass on a bright day. They are great ventrilo- 
quists and can throw r their voice quite a distance. Dr. Morgan had quite a 
difficulty in procuring specimens when visiting Robe in October, 1918. 
I procured mine by sitting motionless in a thicket and imitating the bird’s 
call ; they would come running along the ground, pause for a moment, hop 
on to a low twig or bough, raise the head and tail and pour forth a clear sweet 
note, the mandibles often wide apart, when the tongue and yellow lining to 
the mouth can be plainly seen. At the slightest sound of alarm, down goes 
the tail and they run with such rapidity and so close to the ground, that they 
are lost to sight in a moment. They are late breeders and do not nest very 
often till late in December ; the nest is a large structure of bent and twisted 
blades of the sword-grass neatly lined with fine grasses. Their food consists 
mostly of insects, but they also take a good many very small berries and 
seeds. M. b. ivhitei. The range of this subspecies commences west of 
Kingston and follows the sand dunes of Younghusband Peninsula (bounded 
upon one side by the open ocean and on the other by the Coorong) to the 
Murray Mouth. It keeps to the peninsula and I have never seen it east 
of the Coorong. These birds are fairly numerous amongst the sandhills, 
but shy and difficult to procure.” 
Morgan has written : “ These birds are very common in the sandhill 
country from Glenelg River to Kingston. The bird on the Coorong collected 
by Capt. White is much lighter in colour, and has rightly been described as 
a new subspecies. Although the birds are so common they are very rarely 
seen. My wife and I have stood still in the scrub and had birds calling 
all around us, sometimes within a few feet, and yet not been able to get a 
sight of them. As for collecting specimens, we tried every day for a week 
at Beachport without securing a single bird or even a shot at one.” 
When Milligan described his new species he stated : “ The new bird 
closely resembles Sphenura hroadbenti, and at first sight I thought that it 
was that form, or a western variety of it, but after examination of a skin 
of the eastern form, I felt that I need not have the slightest hesitation in 
separating it from that species. The chief differences between the species 
are that the new one is much smaller than Sphenura hroadbenti , and that in 
the former the rufous or chestnut head is brighter, and the under-surfaces 
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