NOTE ON MALURUS LEUCOPTERU^, QUOY and 

 GAIMARD. 



By Alfred J. Nortfi, C.M.Z.S., Ornithologist. 



On referring to the original description and figure of Malurus 

 leucopterus, in the Zoology and Atlas of the " Voyage de 

 rUranie/ I find that Gould had very good grounds for doubting 

 if the bird figured and described by him under this name, in his 

 "Birds of Australia,"- was not distinct from the species to which 

 it had been originally applied by Quoy and Gaimard. Gould 

 appears to have always entertained this doubt, for in his " Supple- 

 ment to the Birds of Australia,"'' published many years after, in 

 his remarks on M. leuconotus, he there writes — "and M. cyariotus, 

 if the bird discovered by Quoy and Gaimard in the ' Voyage de 

 rUranie,' on Dirk Hartog's Island, should prove to be diflerent 

 from the species found in New South Wales, which I think 

 probable." 



The following is Quoy and Gaimard's diagnosis of Malurus 

 leucopterus, " Malurus, capite, collo, pecture-dorsoque cceruleo- 

 nigricantibus ; alis albis ; caudd subcceruled." In their descrip- 

 tion the general colour is given as being of so dark a blue that it 

 appears black, with the frontal half of the wings white, and their 

 extremities brown ; the tail also dark blue, but less so than the 

 body. Their figure, which is taken froni a drawing made by M. 

 Arago at the time of its discovery, and stated to be of the natural 

 size, represents a bird agreeing in colour with their description, 

 and measuring about four inches and a half in total length. 



The above diagnosis and description clearl}' does not apply to 

 the cobalt-blue bird from New South Wales, figured and described 

 by Gould, and which in future will have to be distinguished 

 under his name of Malurus cyanotus.^ 



Since writing the foregoing Mr. Bernard Woodward, 

 Curator of the Western Australian Museum, Perth, has kindly 

 forwarded, among other photographs, to the Curator of the 

 Australian Museum, Sydney, one of three mounted specimens of 



1 Voyage de I'Uranie, Zool , 1824, p. 104, Atlas, pi. xxiii., fig. 2. 



2 Gould— Bds. Austr., iii., fol., 1848, pi. xxv. 



3 Gould — Hds. Austr. Suppl., 24, 1862, opp. pi. xxiv. 



4 Gould— Handbk. Bds. Austr., i., 1865, p. 331. 



