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The Emu 
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Official Organ of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists’ Union 
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“ Birds of a Feather.” 
Vol. XXIV.] 1ST JANUARY, 1925. [Part 3 
The Fairy Warbler: A Re-discovery 
By A. H. CHISHOLM, C.F.A.O.U., Sydney. 
Probably the most interesting circumstance attached to the 
field work of members of the R.A.O.U. in coastal Central 
Queensland, during October, was the definite re-establishment of 
the Fairy Warbler*, Gerygone flavida, This clears up a doubt 
that has prevailed for neariy fifty years, and extends the recorded 
range of the species over four hundred miles southward. 
Such a pretty puzzle has been created by this small bird, largely 
because male and female closely resemble the female of a kin¬ 
dred species, that the history is worth tracing in detail. Gcry- 
gone flavida was first taken in the Herbert River district, North 
Queensland, in 1874, by the late Dr. E. P. Ramsay, of Sydney. 
In the following year Ramsay wrote a paper on Queensland birds 
in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, and 
there mentioned two species of Gerygone from Rockingham Bay 
of whose identity he was doubtful. Of one he said, “This is 
either Gerygone culicivora or a new species,” and he proceeded 
to describe its haunt and nest, both of which point to the bird as 
being G. magnirostris. The second Warbler was “one of the 
most common species, always to be found in the dense scrubs by 
its pleasing, twittering note”; the specimens taken, in full moult, 
resembled G. albogularis. This second bird was the true flavida, 
of course; but A. J. North, in the first edition of his Nests and 
Eggs (1889) made the mistake of applying Ramsay’s notes on the 
first-mentioned bird to the Fairy Warbler. 
Reference to North’s error takes us too far forward at the 
moment. It was in 1877 (in the Proceedings of the Linnean 
\ Society of New South Wales, Vol. 2) that Ramsay described his 
*1 use this term tentatively. “Yellow” Warbler, previously used in 
a few places, is not satisfactory, and fairy seems to fit this dainty 
bird (which we rediscovered in “Fairy Bower”) better than any other 
Warbler. 
