PARDALOTUS. 
species are to be found; some of them associated in the same district {sic), 
and even inhabiting the same trees, while in other parts only a single species 
exists ; for instance, the P. pundatus, P. quadragintus and P. affinis inhabit 
Tasmania; on the whole of the southern coast of the continent from east to 
west P. pundatus and P. striatus are associated ; the north coast is the cradle 
of the species I have called uropygialis, and the east coast that of melano- 
cephalus, from both of wliich countries the others appear to be excluded ; the 
true habitat of the beautiful species I have described as P. rubricatus is the 
basin of the interior.” 
The ranges of some of these forms have been extended and the values 
of some of the species depreciated, yet the results to-day aro very similar. 
The species uropygialis is only subspecifically separable from melanocephalus , 
so that the latter extends over all northern points while rubricatus, although 
it is typically an interior form, has extended its range out on to the north-west 
coast and also into the Cape York peninsula, apparently up the western side. 
The occurrence of three distinct species of the family in Tasmania is 
most extraordinary, especially the occurrence of a form apparently showing 
the most primitive style of coloration. The series can be divided into four; 
whether they are considered genera or subgenera is of little real importance, 
but the occurrence of three distinct forms in Tasmania indicate their recogni¬ 
tion as of generic value, especially as the group is isolated in Australia and 
Tasmania and has evolved away from every near ally, so that these are now 
unknown. The queer trait of building a domed nest in a burrow is a character 
of much importance, suggesting they built domed nests in the open before they 
burrowed, and their stout bills have developed through that burrowing habit. 
That the Tasmanian form retaining an ancestral style of coloration should 
have the thickest, most parrot-like bill is very curious and not easily determined. 
This form which I have called Nesopardalotus seems obviously the more 
modestly coloured bird from which Pardalotus s. str. has developed, but as the 
latter now also lives in Tasmania and on the mainland all through the south 
from east to west, it appears suggestive that the northern birds should have 
evolved on the mainland and then re-entered Tasmania. It is peculiar that 
Nesopardalotus should occur on King Island but not on the Minders group 
where pundatus lives, and suggests the same conclusion as the study of the 
Streperoid birds instigated, viz., that the Flinders Island connection with the 
mainland lasted after the King Island passage was broken through, and that 
the Bassian Straits were formed by pressure from the west, not east. 
Apparently Pardalotinus, wliich was coexistent with Pardalotus on the continent, 
passed into Tasmania at the same time as Pardalotus. On the mainland 
there had been three distinct forms developing, the interior producing the 
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