MALURUS 



207 



and fore-neck blue-black/ a line of feathers across the tipper portion of the breast velvety-black; 

 remainder of the under srirf ace dull white, washed with fulvous-brown on the sides of the abdomen 

 and lower Hanks: the feathers adjoining the black line on the upper portion of the breast more or 

 less ivashed with blue; under tail-coverts dull while tinged tvith fulvous-broivn ; bill black; legs and 

 feet brown; iris black. Total length in the jfesh 6 inches, wing I'V, tail 225, bill OSo, tarsus 09. 



Adult female — General colour above brown, with a slight rufescent tinge which is more 

 distinct on the rump and upper tail-coverts; tipper ivingcoverts brown; quills dark brown, 

 externally edged loith rufesceyit-hrown; tail brown: lores, orbital ring, and feathers behind the upper 

 portion of the eye chestnut-brown ; all the umle.r surface dull white, tinged with fulvous brown; 

 sides of the body and under tail-coverts fulvous-hrown. 



Distribution. — Queensland, New South Wales, \'ictoria. South Australia. 



^T^HIS familiar and well known resident is an inhabitant of the south-eastern portion of 



_L the continent, and is more abundantly distributed near the coast than inland. The 



favourite haunts of this little bird are the scrubby sides of watercourses, the margins of tea-tree 



swamps, and low undergrowth over-run with climbing plants. It is also common about 



orchards and gardens, and even in the public parks of cities 

 one's attention is frequently arrested by the rich blue and 

 velvety-black attire of the adult male, as it pours forth its 

 cheerful song from the top of some low bush or shrub. 1 

 have noted it in the Botanic Gardens at Sydney, Melbourne, 

 and Adelaide, but it is far more common in the first 

 locality, and still, as in Gould's time, rears its young in this 

 beautiful resort. About Sydney it is known under the names 

 of Superb Warbler, Blue Wren, and Cocktail. 



Mr. George Caley, who lived at Parramatta and formed 

 a collection of Australian birds from which Mgors and 

 Horsfield took their descriptions, which were published in 

 the "Transactions of the Linnean Society of London" in 1826, 

 made the following observations on this species: — "They 

 are gregarious, and polygamous to appearance, unless I have 

 been deceived by the young birds possessing the plumage of 

 the female. They are very good songsters, and I may say 

 almost the only ones in the colony." The utterly fallacious 

 and wide-spread belief, even at the present day, that the 

 birds of Australia are not gifted with any powers of song, is 

 in a measure due to the latter misleading statement made by Caley in the early days of 

 settlement in New South Wales. The notes of this species somewhat resembles the sounds 

 produced by rubbing a cork quickly around the bottom of a tumbler. 



The adult male of this species is exceedingly pugnacious when he sees his image reflected 

 in a window or even in a piece of bright tin, and will remain pecking at it for some time. 

 They also feign to be wounded, or simulate death very well. While collecting one day, an 

 adult male that had been temporarily stunned soon recovered and tried to escape from its 

 captor's hand. Failing in this respect, it closed its eyes and gradually let its head fall down as 

 if dead, but when unobserved made efforts to get away. This it repeated several times, until 

 my companion held it out in the open palm of his hand, when it quickly flew away. 



The above descriptions are taken from specimens procured near Sydney. In over forty 

 fully adult males now before me, obtained in New South Wales, there is no perceptible 

 variation in the shade of the metallic-blue colour of the crown of the head, ear-coverts, and 



SUPEKI! WARBLER. 



