THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Macgillivray has written : “ PoepMla hecki met with for the first time on 
the Leichardt, 25 miles beyond Caloola Station, where a pair was found in 
attendance upon a nest containing four young birds on 16th June, 1910. This 
nest was placed in a horizontal bushy Hmb of a bauhitiia, 15 feet from the 
ground, and was composed of fine grass, lined with a few Galah feathers; it 
was 6 inches in depth and 8 inches long on the outside, 4 inches by 5 inches on 
the inside. The yomig were covered with pin feathers and grey down. Bill 
blacldsh, irides grey. Adult irides dark orange, bill orange-scarlet, legs 
and feet bright red. Crop and gizzard contained grass-seeds. These birds 
became numerous as the Gregory River was approached.” 
No subspecies were suggested until Heinroth in 1902 noted that captive 
birds in Berlin were darker than birds from Derby and that they had coral-red 
bills and feet, whereas the Derby birds had yeUow bills, as Gould had described 
from his species. He therefore considered the red-biUed birds as a new species 
and named it PoepMla hecki. A little later, ignorant of Heinroth’s action, 
North noticed the same thing among Sydney captive birds, statmg that birds 
from Wyndham and Port Darwin had orange-red bills and were darker than 
birds from Derby, wliich had yeUow bills, and proposed to name the former 
PoepMla aurantriirostris. He at once noted that Heinroth had anticipated 
liis separation. 
Rogers collected a series of this bird for me at Derby and then went to 
Wyndham, where he found aU the birds had yellow bills. This proved that 
Wyndliam could not be the correct locality for the red-biUed birds if they 
existed in nature, which I was at first inclined to doubt. Later, I fomid 
that they must have come from Port Darwin, as in the closely allied group 
of personata, wliile the north-western birds had yellow bills the Port Essmgton 
birds had orange bills. This later proved correct and I added 
PoepMla acuticauda nea. 
“Differs from P. a. acuticauda in its much darker colour, especially on the 
under-surface. Glencoe, Northern Territory.” 
At present I am inclined to allow only the two I admitted m my 1912 
“ Reference List ” and my 1913 “ List,” viz. : 
PoepMla acuticauda acuticauda (Gould). 
North-west Australia. 
PoepMla acuticauda hecki Heinroth. 
Northern Territory. 
McLennan notes: “ King River: Occasionally seen in forest country. 
I airly plentiful about springs and billabongs before the rains.” 
236 
