Page:The Emu volume 4.djvu/19

 Malurus pulcherrimus and Calamanthus montanellus appear to be associated species. Both were found by us in the foothills of the Stirling Ranges.

All these species appear to be purely coastal. They are certainly found on the inland side of the Darling Ranges, but then only in the southern coastal districts.

Having worked the coast from Lake Yanchep to Cape Leeuwin, I can confidently say that not any one of the above species is found on the coastal side of the Range. Being birds with a limited power of flight, and being more terrestrial than arboreal in habit, it is probable that the Darling Ranges formed an insuperable barrier to their eastward movements rather than that they had a predilection for inland dry areas, As against the latter notion it may be mentioned that Oreoica cristata, Pomatorhinus superciliosus, Calamanthus montanellus, and Malurus pulcherrimus are found in the Stirling Ranges, which are well within the coastal influence of the Southern Ocean, and where the rainfall is the heaviest and most frequent in the State. All these last-named species, excepting Malurus pulcherrimus, are more numerous than in the Wongan Hills district. I do not pretend to say that the species enumerated under the last two headings are the only ones inhabiting coastal and inland areas respectively. They are the only ones which call for attention, resultant upon the trip to the Wongan Hills. Before concluding this paper by adding the list of species obtained or observed during the trip, I should like to refer to an instance or two of the direct influence that the avifauna has in the distribution of the flora. Whilst scouring the bases and sides of the Hills I observed that the quandong trees, or native peach trees, as they are locally called, frequently appeared in groups, and I was much perplexed how to account for it. However, one day I came across a similar group of these trees growing on the saline plains, but looking very sickly. It suddenly occurred to me that Emus were the agency of distribution, and that, after swallowing them, the hard, indigestible nuts passed uninjured. On mentioning the matter to a solitary cattle-minder whom we met, he stated the berries were in country districts more frequently called "Emu berries" than