Page:The Emu volume 20.djvu/233

 and spent hours trying to geet a view of the male. I could see both male and female hoppinp about in a huge Acacia bush a few feet away; but, though I took up a position at a distance, and used a field-glass, neither would come out of cover. On another occasion I waited a long time near a nest containing young a day or two old, but my patience gave out, aided by the immediate presence of eight young camels, and I did not get a clear view of either parent. I found several nests with full clutches of eggs. The favourite haunt was a tract of scrub about 18 inches high, interspersed with a few dead bushes, around and through which various grasses were growing. The prevailing bush bore a small, bright blue "forget-me-not-like" flower, with short leaves of a vivid green. Compared with nests of Maluri, those of this Emu-Wren were poor affairs. They were smaller, more globular, and only half-lined. It was quite easy to see right through them. The eggs were larger than some of those of the Pied Wren, but wore more profusely spotted—I might even say blotched.

Amytornis textilis carteri. Dirk Hartog Grass-Wren; and Amytornis textilis. Grass-Wren (Peron Peninsula).—I am at present treating the above as one and the same. I believe the type was obtained by the Uranie expedition in 1818 on the Peron Peninsula.

It is hard to conceive that the Dirk Hartog birds should show any but the slightest differences from the type obtained a few miles away, the climatic conditions being practically similar and the isolation on Peron Peninsula being only in a smaller degree less effective. It must be remembered that only two specimens have, until my latest visit to Peron, been recently obtained there. Mr. Carter obtained a male, and I a female. The material for comparison is therefore of the scantiest; but that the Dirk Hartog birds, and also those on Peron, should differ from specimens obtained by myself some twelve or more years ago at Lake Austin, in a hot, dry climate, and at an elevation of 1,200 feet, is not surprising. I regret that, owing to the ravages of cats on Dirk Hartog, I did not see a single example during a persistent search of three months' duration. I had my experiences with the interior form at Lake Austin and Lake Way to guide me, so I do not think I was personally at fault. On my first visit, however, in October, 1918, I frequently saw a pair haunting some extra large Acacia bushes not half a mile away from the homestead. They were excessively wary, and I failed to secure a specimen.

Mr. G. C. Lloyd, the manager of Dirk Hartog sheep station, knows the species well since it was brought under his notice by Mr. Carter, and he recently told me that for some time back he had not observed an example. The native marsupial animals have nearly disappeared, too, and the swarms of domestic mice Mr. Carter mentions are now reduced to insignificant numbers at the homestead and out-camps. This is all due to cats. I do not think I ever went out without either seeing one or finding recent traces of these pests.

For an account of Mr. Carter's most interesting notes on the discovery of the Grass-Wren (Amytornis textilis) on Peron I must refer readers to Mr. A. J. Campbell's paper on "Additions to the H. L. White Collection" (Emu, xviii., April, 1919). I should like to have quoted Mr. Carter's experiences with the Dirk Hartog form, but space will not permit.