THE BIRDS OE AUSTRALIA. 
I ranked as a subspecies the form Grant described as C. wdlsi and added: 
Climacteris mdanura alexandrce. 
“ Differs from G. m. mdanura in being much paler below. 
Alexandra, Northern Territory.” 
These have been upheld by F. E. Howe in his recent Review, where he 
added more differential features as regards the normal forms, and as I do not 
conclude the values of these forms of Treecreepers as yet fixed I am quoting 
Howe’s remarks as well as giving Grant’s description of his C. wellsi, as that 
may yet prove to deserve specific rank. 
Ogilvie-Grant described a new species, Climacteris wellsi, thus: “Adult 
male. Most nearly allied to the male of C. mdanura Gould, but at once 
distinguished by having the general colour of the under-parts chestnut instead 
of brown, and the middle of the breast rufous-buff (not smoky-buff) with white, 
black-edged shaft-streaks. The under tail-coverts are black, strongly barred 
with white, instead of black narrowly tipped with white. In other respects 
the plumage is very similar to that of C. mdanura. Adult female. Differs 
from the female of C. melanura in a similar manner to the male described above. 
Wing 3-7-3-85 inches, tail 2-7. Clifton Downs.” 
C. wellsi was only met with on the Upper Gascoyne River, where it was 
plentiful among the Eucalyptus and other trees winch fringe the river-beds 
and water-courses.” 
Whitlock, writing of the Pilbarra Goldfield, stated: “ Native name ‘ Chinin- 
chinin.’ The only Treecreeper in the district. I first noticed it at the crossing 
of the Shaw River, where T obtained a female. On the upper Coongan it was 
extremely rare, but in a secluded gully I found a pair and after some trouble 
watched the female to her nest in the cavity of a very small gum growing on 
a stony hillside. ... On the lower Coongan this species was a little more 
common, and I saw a young brood of three on the wing the first week in 
October. On the de Grey too, this Creeper was not uncommon, and I watched 
a female to her nest in a lofty and half-dead gum tree. . . . This species 
haunts the cajaputs as well as the eucalypts,” 
Howe has written : “ The skins (perhaps those collected by Whitlock) 
are much smaller than the dominant form, and are more rufous on the breast 
and abdomen in both sexes. A juvenile skin is without the radiated breast- 
markings, merely showing a trace of the gular striations at the base of the bill. 
. . . W. m. alexandrce,. The male differs from the dominant form in having 
the radiated breast-markings extending practically right down the abdomen, 
but the greatest difference is in the females. The gular patch of W. m. melanura 
is snowy-white, as are also the centres of the breast-feathers with their bright 
red edges, but in W. m. alexandrce the throat and upper breast are a dingy or 
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