Notes on Grasswren Eggs in Len Harvey’s Collection, Museum Victoria

Abstract

Examination of Sydney Leonard (Len) Harvey’s collection of grasswren (Amytornis) eggs and explanatory notebooks in Museum Victoria has revealed that he made observations of grasswrens in the mid to late 20th century near Mullewa (Western Australia), Tibooburra (New South Wales) and Kulgera (Northern Territory) that extend the historical information on western Amytornis textilis textilis and eastern A.t. modestus Thick-billed Grasswrens. His collection contains eggs from Glenormiston Station, western Queensland, that suggest either the presence there of a previously undescribed but predicted population with an affinity to the textilis–modestus group, or represent the first record of the nest and eggs of the Eyrean Grasswren A. goyderi. He also provided a description of nesting of the Black Grasswren A. housei, 23 years ahead of its first formal report. Our investigation amends the year of the last known Thick-billed Grasswren record in New South Wales to 1936 (previously reported as 1956).