THE BIRDS OE AUSTRALIA. 
used as given by Gould, apparently because the author was too busy to investi- 
gate the matter himself, and the easiest way was acceptance. 
Then Milligan got a Grass-Wren from Day Dawn and differentiated it from 
macrourus from Gould’s description alone, and without considering the confusion, 
nor carefully attending to the poor description Gould had given. 
Then Carter, securing a Grass-Wren at Broome Hill, described it as new, 
comparing it with Milligan’s gigantura, but later he withdrew' his species, 
considering that it was the long lost Gouldian macrourus and this has been 
accepted. Here again there appears to be a doubt, as Gould’s macrourus was 
“ shot in the interior by Gilbert ” and we know that Gilbert’s “ interior of 
West Australia ” w'as inland in the York clistricb to the Wongan Hills. 
These were apparently closely allied to Gould’s textilis, as Heartland main- 
tained that Milligan’s species was the same as he had called textilis from East as 
well as West Australia. However, the true textilis had never been collected 
until Mr. Tom Carter, at my request, undertook the exploration of Dirk Hartog 
Island and the Peron Peninsula. He there found Grass -Wrens comparatively 
plentiful, but very difficult to secure ; but as no one had apparently collected 
on the island since Quoy and Gaimard one hundred years previously, he w'as 
enabled to make close observations, which I published in the Austral Avian 
Record , Vol. III., 1917, pp. 79 et seq., wherein I also gave the technical history 
of the species which will follow' here. 
Carter wrote : “ Jan. 2, 1917. On several occasions previous to this 
date I had seen a single, and once a pair of birds, in low scrub near Denham 
on Peron Peninsula, that I felt sure were Diaphorillas. One day I had a shot 
at one with Ho. 10 shot, but although the bird seemed to be hit, I lost it in 
scrub. For eight consecutive days I w r as hunting round the vicinity, when I 
saw a bird moving in the bottom of the scrub. I chirped with my lips, and at 
once it emerged from below the bush, and ran away from me, with icings drooping 
and feathers puffed out , to underneath a dense ‘ needle ’ bush, under whose 
shelter it paused. I had not a very clear view of it, but shot and killed it, a 
male Diaphorillas textilis with testes enlarged. In measurement it is much the 
same as Dirk Hartog birds, but the plumage is darker, brighter, and with bolder 
markings than any from Dirk Hartog Island. The Peron bird is much more 
wary then the others.” This note refers absolutely to the typical textilis 
collected by Quoy and Gaimard. 
Mr. Tom Carter has given a full account of the finding of this bird on Dirk 
Hartog in the Ibis, 1917, pp. 599-605, from which I extract the following notes : 
“ These Grass- Wrens appear to be very silent birds, and the three peculiar 
movements that I have attempted to describe do not appear to have been 
recorded for any others of the genus, viz. : — 
176 
