THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
% 
form a clutch, and I have examined nests containing eggs from the second 
week in August till the first week in October.” 
Mr. F. E. Howe has written me : “In the open and Ifilly country a few 
pairs have been noted. It is very local and stays here the whole year. One 
call uttered three or five times and fairly high pitched is often heard, and 
another that sounds like ‘ gurr-r,’ is uttered as the bird flys from tree to tree. 
This call is not like that of the northern typical bird and the bird seems lighter 
in colour.” 
Captain S. A. White has written me: “ The Brown Treecreeper is 
invariably found in the heavily timbered country. I have found it in open 
timbered country. It is found all along the Mount Lofty Ranges and where 
its sharp call is a very familiar one, as it circles the tree trunks in search of 
insect life. This Treecreeper is a very local bird and I have known a pair 
to keep to the one locality of not half a mile square for many years. The 
bird was very plentiful here at the Reedbeds in years gone by, but now there 
is but one or, perhaps, two pairs left. This is due mostly to the domestic cat 
gone wild and to the imported English House Sparrow, which drives the Tree- 
creeper out of the nesting hollows.” 
Later, reporting the Lower Murray Excursion, he recorded: “ These buds 
were numerous amongst the big timber; they were also seen in the mallee. There 
were very large broods of fully-fledged young moving about with parent birds.” 
Chandler wrote from the Kow Plains, Victoria: “ Abundant. The Tree- 
creepers spend much time hopping on the ground.” Howe also noted: 
“ Very numerous in the tall mallee ; eggs and young noticed in the tree hollows,” 
while Wilson, 'writing about the Mallee, commented: “This Treecreeper, 
which is slightly larger in the bill than the southern birds, was frequently 
met with in the open country, and then’ nests were occasionally found. The 
€ gg s (two) of one clutch secured are remarkable on account of their size, 
being half as large again as those usually met with.” 
In his “ Census of the Birds of the Pilliga Scrub, New South Wales,” Clelaud 
wrote : “ Fourteen birds counted, uniformly distributed through the scrub. 
Mi n i m al (sic) population, 924. Iris dark brown; bill and legs black; throat 
blackish. No entozoa.” 
Eliminating the confusion of the two specific names there is little to record 
concerning the technical history of the species. Until I prepared my 
“ Reference List ” no subspecies had been distinguished, probably on account 
of the dull coloration of the species as a whole. I, however, named:— 
Climacteris picumnus picumnus Temminck and Laugier. 
Queensland, New South Wales. 
Climacteris picumnus australis Mathew’s. 
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