GRASS-WREN. 
probably the two stray birds seen in my paddock at the small isolated patch 
of ‘marlock’ had been driven down from their usual haunts further east by 
extensive bush fires that had been raging there. Broome Hill aboriginal 
name ‘ Tcher-ree.’ ” 
When Carter described his A. varia, he compared it with Milligan’s 
gigantura , noting his species was larger, had no chestnut patches on body or 
shoulders [the sign of the female], the upper-surface in three distinct shades, 
the dark head and neck being very pronounced, while Milligan’s was a “uniform 
dull brown,” and Carter’s measurements read “ Total length 7*50, wing 3*0, 
tail 4*20, tarsus P20 and culmen *4 inch.” 
There can be little hesitation in reinstating Carter’s form as validly distinct 
from Gould’s macrourus, which is probably the same bird as Milligan named 
gigantura , the differences being indefinable at present. 
In the Austral. Avian Record, Vol. III., pt. 4, p. 79, et seq., 1917, I have 
given completely the early technical complication with regard to the authority 
for Malurus textilis which I showed, though commonly accredited to Quoy 
and Gaimard, was first described by Dumont. 
In the preceding pages, I have outlined the confusion Gould perpetuated 
through using the name given to a West Australian bird for a bird he found 
in New South Wales, and then describing the West Australian bird as a new 
species. Since that date many species have been referred to by this earliest 
name given to a Grass-Wren and it has been difficult to disentangle the 
records. I am now inclined to think that at present more than one species 
is here included under textilis. 
The true textilis forms are 
Diaphorillas textilis textilis (Dumont). 
Per on Peninsula, West Australia. 
Diaphorillas textilis carteri Mathews. \ 
Dirk Hartog Island. 
This island form is paler, duller, with less bold markings than the former. 
Whitlock suggests these are identical without seeing any specimens, which 
is not wise in this genus. 
Diaphorillas textilis macrourus (Gould). 
Wongan Hills, Mid- west Australia. 
Of this, at present, Amytis gigantura Milligan can only be regarded as 
synonymous, the type locality of that form being Mount Magnet in the same 
kind of district, and Milligan’s specimens agree very closely with Gould’s 
plate, which Carter’s, the next subspecies, do not. Sharpe altered Milligan’s 
gigantura to meg alum because he thought the former was not good Greek, 
which it is. 
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