AUSTRALIAN 244 WATCHER

On Some New South Wales Records of the Grey and the Thick-billed Grasswren

The first record of the Grey Grasswren McAllan & Cooper (1995), when discussing the New South Wales distribution of the Grey Grasswren Amytornis barbatus, noted that Chenery (1922) saw a grasswren near 'the Bulloo floodwaters' in 1921. At the time we believed that the locality of Chenery's bird was uncertain, and that therefore the bird could have been either a Grey Grasswren or a Thick-billed GrasswrenA. textilis. Macgillivray (1923) had published another account of this expedition, a reference overlooked by Whittell (1954). Macgillivray's more detailed account reveals that the grasswren was sighted on 25 August 1921 at Coonulpie [sic, = Connulpie], the station immediately to the west of Teurika Station. Macgillivray noted that on that morning they travelled from the homestead 'about three miles and make our camp on a water channel by the road to the "Adelaide Gate" in the border fence ... Dr. Chenery flushed an Amytis [ = Amytomis], but did not secure a specimen. After a long and fruitless search we come out and make for the creek, and follow it back to the camp. .. After a late lunch, Dr. Chenery goes back to look up the Amytis'. This account indicates that the bird was seen somewhere along the creekline immediately north of Teurika. Grey have subsequently been recorded at this locality (see McAllan & Cooper 1995). On this basis it seems that Chenery did indeed see a Grey Grasswren, the first record of the species.

Records of the Thick-billed Grasswren from the Grey Range In October 1912 Macgillivray collected two specimens of the Thick-billed Grasswren at Wyarra to the west of Milparinka. McAllan (1987) suggested that these may have been collected farther to the north, towards Mount Arrowsmith. I recently examined other material written by Macgillivray to clarify this point. Two notebooks of Macgillivray's were acquired by the Museum of Victoria in the early 1960s and are held in the Department of Ornithology. Macgillivray kept a daily account of all his sightings of which were annotated separately under individual species. Under the species nameAmytomis modestus he noted: '1 10.12 out with McL[ennan] & Mr Officer at Wyarra in dry stony blue bush country where we flushed several of these birds & obtained one specimen. '2 10 12 went out to same place S. Blackwell with Ian & McL. wounded a grasswren & found it exceedingly elusive & quick on its feet it kept running from bush to bush & at last into a rabbit burrow from which we recovered it after a lot of digging.' A description then follows of the bare-part colours, total length and sex (a female) of the second bird collected. Although this does not by itself resolve the problem of the locality 'S. Blackwell', his account of Cinnamon Quail-thrush Cinclosoma cinnamomeum VOL. 18 (6) JUNE2000 Grasswrens in N.S.W 245 for 1 October gives further detail. In this account he noted: ' ... He [Mr A. Officer of Wyarra] took us to where he had often seen the birds [quail-thrush] & had found a nest last year. Upon leaving the motor under a shady Acacia we had a long walk through the blue bush. We first crossed some very stony hills on which there was a sparse covering of stunted mulga & Turpentine got into better blue bush country where we flushed our first ground thrush [=quail­ thrush ] .. .' Thus, the Thick-billed Grasswrens were collected on the other side of some 'very stony hills' on the Wyarra property. Wyarra no longer exists. It is now included within the boundaries of three properties: the north-eastern part of Pincally near the homestead; the northern part of Pimpara Lake south to Wyarra bore; and the southern part of Mount Arrowsmith north to near Bakers Tank (cf. Robinson 1923 with Division of National Mapping 1987). Given the boundaries of the former Wyarra, it appears that the only major hills on the property are in the area now included in Mount Arrowsmith Station. These hills are the southernmost spurs of the Grey Range and were evidently the locality at which the Grasswrens were collected. The observations of 2 October of a bird retreating down the rabbit burrow are yet another instance of this behaviour in this species; indeed, it is the earliest record (Schodde & Weatherley 1982, Coate 1994). Macgillivray recorded Rufous Fieldwrens Calamanthus campestris at the same locality on this trip. The Fieldwren has not previously been noted from this far north in New South Wales. The Rufous Fieldwren, Cinnamon Quail-thrush and Thick-billed Grasswren were often encountered in the same localities as the threatened Chestnut-breasted WhitefaceAphelocephala pectoralis in studies by Pedler (1992) in . The Fieldwren is common at Pedlers' Mount Lyndhurst study site (pers. obs.). The egg collection of Len Harvey in the Museum of Victoria provides further support for the former existence of the Thick-billed Grasswren in the Grey Range. His data book notes: 'Amytornis modesta Thick-billed Grasswren 512 Tibooburra many miles north towards the Queensland border 17.8.56 [ = 1956]. C/2 incubation started. Nest. Oval nest. Top covered with a hood. Wide entrance to nest chamber, made of fine dried grasses. Sitting bird flushed out of the nest, when small bush hit with a stick. I have not seen this species of grasswren before, hard to get a good look at I remember, but totally different to the [Amytomis striatus] I know, I came to the conclusion it was the above species. Habitat. Plain, scrubby country salt-blue bush plant type miles of it if I remember correctly. I camped there, & continued on this track to Bulloo Downs Station s.w. Queensland per my pushbike & swag.' Although it has been suggested that many of the records in Harvey's collection are erroneous, such erroneous records are few in number; for example, undoubtedly fewer than 'in the collections of S.W. Jackson or Robert Grant. Harvey's account was apparently written long after the sighting. Even so, the detail is probably an accurate recollection, as it would be hard to forget a trip to Bulloo Downs by pushbike. This would place the record somewhere north of Tibooburra on the Wompah Gate road possibly in the Mount Wood Hills, an easterly spur of the Grey Range. The Thick-billed Grasswren may still be found in parts of the Grey Range in New South Wales. Large parts of the Range have been included in Sturt National AUSTRALIAN 246 McALLAN BIRD WATCHER

Park for over 20 years, and rabbit numbers have been reduced by the Calicivirus. An intensive search for this species in the Grey Range would appear warranted.

Acknowledgements Rory O'Brien gave me much help while I was visiting Melbourne in August and September 1999. Help was also received from the Map Collection staff at the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South \Vales, and Dick Cooper and Dariel Larkins.

References Chenery, A (1922), 'Notes on birds seen during a recent visit to the Western Darling, N.S.W. ,' S. Aust. Ornithol. 6, 110-114, 134-138, 153-155. Coate, K.H. (1994), 'Another instance of Thick-billed Grasswrens hiding in burrows', Aust. Bird Watcher 15, 278-279. Division of National Mapping (1987), Cobham Lake Topographic Map, 1: 100,000, Div. Nat. Mapp., Canberra. McAllan, I.AW. (1987), 'Early records of the Thick-billed GrasswrenAmytornis textilis and Striated Grasswren Amytornis striatus in New South Wales,' Aust. Birds 21, 33-43. McAllan, I.AW. & Cooper, R.M. (1995), 'The distribution of the Grey Grasswren in New South Wales,' Aust. Birds 28, 65-70. Macgillivray, W. (1923), 'A trip to north and north-west of Broken Hill,' Vic. Nat. 39, 131- 14 7. Pedler, L. (1992), 'Review of the status and distribution of the Chestnut-breasted Whiteface Aphelocephala pectoralis,' S. Aust. Ornithol. 31, 79- 93. Robinson, H.E.C. (1923), Map of New South Wales, showing Pastoral Holdings etc., 5th edn, H.E.C. Robinson, Sydney. Schodde, R. & Weatherley, R. (1982), The Fairy-wrens, A Monograph of the Maluridae , Lansdowne, Melbourne. Whittell, H.M. (1954), The Literature of Australian Birds: A History and Bibliography of Australian Ornithology, Paterson Brokensha, Perth.

By IAN AW McALLAN, 46 Yeramba Street, Turramurra, NS. W 2074 Received 3 December 1999 •