THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
H. L. White has recently written : “ Two pairs (d and $) from Shark 
Bay, W.A., and collected by Mr. F. L. Whitlock, appear to agree with three 
skins from the East Murchison district (also collected by Mr. Whitlock) 
and with the description of Milligan’s gigantura , except that the Shark Bay 
birds may be a little lighter underneath, while the tail of one specimen is 
110 mm. — fully § of an inch longer than that given, as its chief feature, for 
gigantura. Further east a pair collected by Mr. C. G. Gibson in the region 
of Kalgoorlie answers Gould’s plate of macrura, a darker variety of the true 
textilis, while the darkest birds are a pair taken by Capt. S. A. White still 
further eastward — at the Everard Mountains, which birds are apparently 
Mathews’s purnelli from Central Australia. The interesting question arises, 
What bird is figured by Gould in his plate as textilis of which he stated, ‘ I 
killed and dissected many examples ’ ? Except for the absence of the dark 
cheek stripe the picture is suggestive of the eastern form of A. striata. 
However it is not the typical textilis .” 
With the statement that the bird Gould figured was not the typical 
textilis I agree, and I described the bird from New South Wales as 
Diaphorillas textilis inexpectatus 
writing : 
“ Differs from D. t. textilis in having much less brown in the feathers on 
the back, fewer striations on the throat, and in having a shorter tail, and from 
D. t. modesta in being very much lighter coloured. Tail 77 mm., typical birds 
96 mm.” 
I continued this as a subspecies of textilis in my 1913 “ List,” but now upon 
reviewing the whole group I find it very puzzling so to regard it. The true 
textilis are all confined to West Australia, ranging from the Sharks’ Bay District 
to the South-east of West Australia, but these are all similar in detail and 
differ from the Eastern bird. As so many peculiar forms exist, I have con- 
cluded that this must be regarded as a distinct species, which apparently is 
now not abundant on the Lower Namoi, if not altogether extinct in that 
locality. 
I have ranged, not without doubt, under this species the Gawler Range 
bird discovered by Captain S. A. White as here noted. 
Captain S. A. White has written me : “ Both Mrs. White and our man, 
Thos. Ash, told me on several occasions that they had seen a brown skulking 
bird in the salt bush, and, calling me, showed me where it had disappeared. 
We spent hours in trying to beat it out without success. It was not till we 
were on our homeward journey, and we had reached Myall Creek, that we were 
fortunate enough to procure an adult and two young birds. Walking 
through the salt bush near the creek or dry watercourse, two brown birds 
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