THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
surface of flight-quills hair-brown with cinnamon-buff margins ; lower aspect of 
tail similar to its upper-surface but rather paler. Bill black with base of lower 
ashy-grey, feet black, eyes brown. Total length 145 mm. ; culmen 8, wing 59, 
tail 73, tarsus 23. Figured. Collected at Indulkanna Springs, Central Australia, 
on the 11th of July, 1914, and is the type of Diaphorillas textilis indulkanna. (Top 
right hand figure.) 
Immature. Are very similar to the adult. 
Nest. “ Similar to that of D. textilis . ” (North.) 
Eggs. C£ Clutch two, swollen ovals in shape, ground-colour of a dirty and pale creamy- white, 
well marked all over, more particularly at the larger end, with spots and blotches 
of brown, and of dull to rich reddish and rusty-brown. Surface of shell fine and 
smooth and rather glossy. The clutch measures 22 mm. by 15.” (H. L. White.) 
Breeding season. After rain early in the year. 
Mr. Gr. A. Heartland, who discovered Amytis modesta North, has written 
me : “At Stokes’s Pass, MacDonnell Ranges, Central Australia, these birds 
were found in companies of six or eight at a time. Instead of hiding in the 
triodia they kept dodging about the rocky walls of the Pass and when dis- 
turbed either ran into the crevices of the rocks or hid amongst the smaller 
stones. I shot three, all of which proved to be females. Their bills were not 
quite as strong as those of A. textilis , their backs a little lighter in colour and 
their breasts even cinnamon-brown, lacking the stripes of that species. I 
saw them again in a rocky gorge in West Australia where they were in small 
companies and appeared to be very sociable. Several clutches of their eggs 
forwarded to me by Mr. C. E. Cowle from the place where I obtained my first 
specimens, were mottled red and white. They are longer than those of A. textilis 
North distinguished this species at Heartland’s suggestion, observing : 
“ Like textilis, but paler above with the throat whitish and the bill deeper 
and not so pointed.” 
Under name Eyramytis goyderi Capt. S. A. White observed : “ We saw 
these birds on three or four occasions, always in the dry, sandy watercourses, 
but they always escaped into large masses of debris which were piled up 
against the trees by the flood waters. Notwithstanding that these heaps of 
rubbish were surrounded by our boys and set fire to, they escaped. It was 
not until we were halfway between Hermannsburg and Alice Springs that a 
specimen was secured.” Later he added : “ Eyramytis sp. A bird of this 
genus was met with near Indulkanna Springs, which was taken at the time 
for E. goyderi, but since then, Gould’s plate of the latter bird having been 
examined, it is easily seen that the skins in the Adelaide Museum labelled 
E. goyderi are not that bird, but agree fairly well with this doubtful species.” 
Apparently the birds referred to in the Adelaide Museum include the 
one collected by Love and recorded by Ashby under the name E. goyderi, when 
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