THE BIRDS OE AUSTRALIA. 
above and in having the white shaft -streaks bordered by a line of black. 
Size similar to that of D. striatus . Kow Plains, Victoria.” 
As I am now separating the West Australian birds as a separate species 
there remains to striatus two subspecies only. 
Diaphorilias striatus striatus (Gould). 
Interior of New South Wales. 
Diaphorilias striatus howei Mathews. 
Victorian Mallee. 
DIAPHORILLAS MERROTSYI. 
CHESTNUT-MANTLED GRASS-WREN. 
(Plate 469, bottom left hand figure.) 
Amytornis MERROTSYI Mellor, Emu, Vol. XII., pt. 3, p. 166, Jan. 1st, 1913 : Lake Torrens, 
South Australia. 
Amytornis merrotsyi Mellor, Emu, Vol. XII., pt. 3, p. 166, Jan. 1st, 1913. 
Diaphorilias textilis merrotsyi Mathews, List Birds Austr., p. 232, 1913. 
I am inclined to include Mellor’s bird, from the specimen he gave me and which I have figured. 
It is in a bad state, so I cannot give a decided opinion. 
Adult female. General colour of the upper-surface chestnut-rufous with white shaft-lines 
to the feathers, many of winch are bordered with black, including the top of the 
head, hind-neck, back, scapulars and wings ; sides of face grey, streaked with white ; 
lower back and rump greyish smoke-brown with dusky bases to the feathers ; upper 
tail-coverts rufous with pale shaft-fines like the lesser upper wing-coverts ; bastard- 
wing, median and greater series dark brown with white shaft-fines and olive- grey 
margins ; flight-quills hair-brown — becoming darker on the innermost secondaries — 
rufous at the base, olive on the outer margins of the primaries and ferruginous, or 
whitish shaft-streaks ; tail dark brown with pale margins and obsolete cross-bars 
to the feathers ; chin cream-white with hair-like tips to the feathers ; fore-neck 
and breast pale buff, more or less tinged with chestnut ; abdomen fawn colour ; 
thighs rust-brown ; flanks and under tail-coverts greyish-brown ; under wing- 
coverts and inner margins of flight-quills below bright cinnamon-rufous ; remainder 
of quill-fining hair-brown ; lower aspect of tail similar to its upper-surface but paler. 
Eyes dark brown, feet and bill dark horn. Wing 60 mm., culmen 10, tail 68 
(damaged = 82), tarsus 27. Figured. Collected 6 miles east of Yudanamutan (Lake 
Torrens), South Australia, on the 1st of September, 1912, and is the co-type of 
Amytornis merrotsyi Mellor. 
Adult male. Differs in having the rufous on the mantle darker, with less rufous on the 
wing-coverts. 
Nest. “ Domed and loosely constructed of dry spinifex grass, fined with rabbits’ fur. 
Built in spinfex grass bush.” (Mellor.) 
198 
