The present is the first species of the genus that has been discovered in Western Australia; the two examples in my own collection are all that I have yet seen; these were shot in the interior by Mr. Gilbert, who states that “it inhabits the thickets, and is almost always on the ground in families of from four to seven in number: it carries its tail more erect than any other bird I have seen, and certainly no bird runs or rather hops over the surface of the ground with greater rapidity.” It is evidently the representative of the _Amytis textilis_ of the eastern coast, to which it is very nearly allied, but from which, as well as from the _A. striatus_, it may at once be distinguished by its more robust form, and by the much greater length and size of its tail. All the upper surface brown, each feather with a narrow stripe of white down the centre; under surface the same, but much paler; under surface of the shoulder pale rusty red; tail brown, margined with pale brown; irides hazel; base of the lower mandible horn-colour, remainder of the bill black; feet flesh-brown. The figures are of the natural size. [Illustration: STIPITURUS MALACHURUS: _Lefs_. _J. & E. Gould del^t._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._ ] STIPITURUS MALACHURUS, _Less._ Emu Wren. _Muscicapa malachura_, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., pl. lii.—Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. x. p. 407. _Soft-tailed Flycatcher_, Linn. Trans., vol. iv. p. 242. pl. 21.—Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. p. 224. _Malurus malachurus_, Vig. & Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 224. _Stipiturus malachurus_, Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 415. _Soft-tailed Warbler_, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. vii. p. 123. _Waw-gul-jelly_, Aborigines of New South Wales. _Djur-jeel-ya_, Aborigines of the lowlands of Western Australia. This curious little bird has a wide distribution; since it inhabits the whole of the southern portion of Australia, from Moreton Bay on the east to Swan River on the west, including Tasmania. Among the places where it is most numerous in the latter country, are the swampy grounds in the neighbourhood of Recherche Bay in D’Entrecasteaux Channel, the meadows at New Norfolk, Circular Head, and Flinder’s Island in Bass’s Straits; on the continent of Australia, Botany Bay, and indeed all portions of the country having a similar character are favoured with its presence.