214 MUSCICAPID.E. 



wing-coverts and quilla hroirn, irashed externally icitli yreeainh-blue ; the inner loing-coverts and itttier 

 secondaries margined with cobalt-blue ; tail feathers blae, their basal half having a distinct greenish 

 shade, the lateral feathers narrowly edged with white at the tips; feathers below the eye and the 

 ear-coverts bright turqnoise-blue ; all tlie under surface rich cobalt, slightly darker on the throat, and 

 with a well defined black band on the fore-neck, icliich joins at the siiles /vith the black nnchal collar ; 

 bill black; legs and feet dark brown ; iris black. Total length 5'2 inches, joing 2'1, tail ' •'>, bill 

 0-1^, tarsus 92. 



Adult FRyiALE— Above brown; trings bn/icn, the i/nills 7iarrowly edged e.vlernally icilli light 

 ashy-green ; tail feathers dull greenish-blue, narrowly edged with white at the tips; lores and feathers 

 around the eye rufous ; all the under surface dull white, slightly tinged rvith broivn; Jlanks, thighs, 

 and under tail-coverts brown; bill reddish-brown; legs and feet jieshy-brown. 



Distribution. — Western Australia. 

 /~|^HE Banded Superb Warbler is one of the most beautiful species of the brilliantly 

 -L coloured members of the genus Malunis. It was discovered at King George's Sound 

 by MM. Quoy and Gaimard, and is accurately figured and described by those writers in the 

 "Voyage de 1' Astrolabe." While collecting in the same locality in October and November, 

 i868, on behalf of the Trustees of the Australian Museum, Mr. George Masters succeeded in 

 obtaining many adults of both sexes, also young birds. Mr. Masters informs me that he found 

 them plentifully distributed throughout the scrubby undergrowth near the coast, and frequenting 

 the same situations as M.elcgans, and they were easily allured within shooting range by imitating 

 their note. Like M. clegans, he never found it further inland than thirty miles from the coast. 



Writing of this species, Gould remarks": — " It breeds in September and the three following 

 months; the nest is constructed of soft dried grasses, and lined either with hair, wool, or 

 feathers, the cover of the top resembling the peak of a cap, and is about six or eight inches in 

 height; the eggs are generally four in number, of a flesh-white, thickly blotched and freckled 

 with reddish-brown, especially at the larger end; eight and a quarter lines long, by six and a 

 quarter lines broad. The situation of the nest is much varied, being sometimes built among 

 the hanging clusters of the stinkwood tree, at others among the upright reeds growing just 

 above the water's edge on the borders of lakes and the banks of rivers." 



Young males resemble the females in plumage, but the bill is slightly darker, the lores and 

 feathers around the eye have only a wash of rufous, and the tail feathers are more tinged with 

 blue. Wing i-g inches. In their progress towards maturity, cobalt-blue feathers are inter- 

 mingled with the entire plumage of the upper and under surfjice, and there is a small patch of 

 black feathers on the sides of the neck, ^^'ing 2 inches. 



Malurus leucopterus? 



WHITE-WINGED SUPERB WARBLER. 

 Malurus leucopterus, Quoy et Gaim., Voy. de I'Uraiiie, p. 108, pi. 2.3, fig. S?; Gould, Bds. Austr., 



fol.. Vol. Ill, pi. 25 (1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Auslr., Vol. I., p. 330 (1865); Sharpc, Cat. 



Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IV., p. 290 (1865); North, Rec. Austr. Mus., Vol. IV., p. 209 (1902). 

 Adult male — General colour above and below deep cobalt blue, the under surface being of a 

 slightly clearer bliie than the upper; a small tuft of feathers on the sides of the upper breast, the 

 scapulars, inner secondaries, and inner wingcoverts pure white, the outer coverts broivn ivashed with 

 blue; quills brown, externally edged with light greenish-blue; the inner secondaries next the white 

 ones dark blue on their outer webs, except a narrow edge; tail feathers dark blue ; bill black; legs 

 brown, feet dark brown; iris black. Total length in the Jtesh 4'^ inches, tving lS-'>, tail 2- J/., 

 bill 35, tarsus OS. 



• Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 323 (1865). 



