204 MUSCICAPID.E. 



C3-erLi:i.s is/Ljfi^x^TJ':R'XJ's, Vieiiht. 

 Malurus cyaneus. 



LONG-TAILED SUPEEB-WARBLER. 

 MotaciUa cya. fJIlis, rr. Voy. Capt. Cook, Vol. I., p. 22 (1782); Anderson in Cook's Yoy. 



Pacif. Ocean, Vol. x., p. 109 (1785); Gmel., Syst. Xat., Tom. I., p. 991 (1788). 



Superb Warbler, Lath., Gen. Syn., Vol. II., pt. 2, p. 501, pi. 53 (1783). 



Malurus lo7igicaudus, Gould, Proc. Zool. See, 1837, p. 148; id., Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. III., pi. 19 



(1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 320 (1865). 

 Malurus gonldi, Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IV., p. 287 (1879). 

 Mahmis cyaneus, North, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. XXVI., p. 632 (1901). 



Adult male — Forehead, eroton of the head, feathers beloiv the eye, ear-coverts, aud mantle, deep 

 metallic blue; lores, feathers above the eye, sides of crown, hind-neck, back, rump, and upper tail- 

 coverts velvety black; upper whig-coverts and quills brown; tail feathers dark blue; cheeks, throat, 

 and fore neck blue-black; a broad line of feathers on the upper portion of the breast velvety-black; 

 remainder of the U7ider surface dull white, tintjed with fulvous-brown; the feathers adjoining the 

 black line on the upper portion of the breast strongly washed with blue; under tail-coverts dull ichite, 

 tinged with fulvous-brown ; bill black: legs and feel dark brown ; iris blackish brown. Total length 

 in the flesh 5o inches, wing 2 15, tail 2-6, bill O'Jf, tarsus O-y-5. 



Adclt female — General colour above rufescent-brown ; tail rufescent-hrotrn, with a faint 

 bluish shade on the inner webs of all but the two central feathers : upper wing-coverts like the back; 

 quills dark brown, externally edged ivilh rufescent brown ; lores, orbital ring, and feathers behind 

 the upper portion of the eye rufous; all the under surface dull white, tinged with fulvous-brown; 

 sides of the body and under tail-coverts fulvous-brown ; bill reddish-broivn ; legs fleshy-brown, the 

 feet slightly darker; iris blackish-broion. Total length in the flesh .', J^ inches, wing 21, tail 26, 

 bill 0-Jf, tarsus 0-92. 



Distribution. — Tasmania, and some of the larger islands in Bass Strait. 

 /~|^HE Long-tailed Warbler, or Blue Wren, was the first described species of the genus 

 -L Malurus, of which the adult males of all its members are noted for their brilliant or 

 strikingly contrasted plumage. The present species was named by Ellis, who was Assistant 

 Surgeon to Captain Cook's last e.xpedition. On referring to Ellis's work,- it will be found that 

 the bird named by him as MotaciUa cyanea, was met with in January, 1777, at Adventure Bay, 

 Bruni Island, near the south-eastern coast of Tasmania. At tliat time Bass Strait had not been 

 discovered, and the latter island was regarded as the southern e.xtreinity of .\ustralia, and is so 

 figured by Ellis in the accompanying chart. Latham, who figured and described this species 

 in the year 1783, in his " General Synopsis of Birds," under the vernacular name of Superb 

 Warbler, also refers it to the MotaciUa cyanea of Ellis. The total length is there given as five 

 inches and a half, and he states it inhabits Van Diemen's Land, the most southern part of New 

 Holland. From Latham's description and figure Gmelin characterised it in 1788, in his 

 " Systema Naturae," under Ellis's name of MotaciUa cyanea, and where the habitat is also 

 recorded as Van Diemen's Land. The name of MaUirus cyaneus, Ellis, will therefore have to 

 stand for the Tasmanian species of Superb Warbler, and that of Malurus superbus, Shaw, for the 

 well known species inhabiting South-eastern Australia. 



It is remarkable that the habitat given in the works above quoted, should have escaped 

 Gould's notice, when nearly half a century after the publication of Gmelin's description, he 

 also described a similar bird under the name of Malurus longicaudns. 



' Ellis — Narr. Voy. performed by Capt. Cook and Capt. Clarke in His Majesty's Ships "Resolution," and 



"Discovery," Vol. I., p. 22 ;i782). 



