THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
They may have been influenced by Dr. Hartert’s description, but they 
should have noticed the difference between typical obscura and the Queensland 
birds. Surely Cardwell cannot be called near Port Essington !! 
Reporting upon birds from the King River, Northern Territory, Campbell 
concluded : “ Three o a- Average length 146, wing 71, culmen 19, tarsus 
19 mm. Nearly uniform drab or hair-brown colour, above and below. The 
North-east Coastal (Cairns and Cardwell) birds are darker (clove-brown) above 
and browner (chestnut) underneath —harterti Mathews. In this decision I 
have modified the view which I held avith Mr. Barnard when our Birds of 
Rockingham Bay (above quoted) was published.” 
Later, Campbell dealing with birds from the islands of Torres Straits 
wrote : “ One $. Resembles King River (N.T.) skins, but is much lighter 
coloured than examples obtained in the heavy country at Cardwell which 
Mr. Mathews designates as harterti .” This was, of course, M. o. rrmrma. 
Probably many subspecies occur hi New Guinea and the Aru Islands, 
but long series have not been collected yet. The birds available are more 
like typical birds than North Queensland ones, and one name is at present 
available, Ptilotis fumata Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av., Vol. I., p. 392, 1850- 
1851, from New Guinea, ex Muller MS. and coll. =Utanata River, S.W. The 
races and names I now allow are : 
Melomyza obscura obscura (Gould). 
Northern Territory. 
Melomyza obscura apsleyi (Mathews). 
Melville Island, Northern Territory. 
Melomyza obscura harterti (Mathews). 
Cairns District, North Queensland. 
Melomyza obscura munna (Mathews). 
Cape York, North Queensland. 
Melomyza obscura fumata (Bonaparte). 
South-west New Guinea, (?) Aru Islands. 
