MALUKUS. 217 



the tips of more or less of the feathers of a rich cobalt-bhie; inner wini^-coverts and secondaries 

 white, with brown centres. 



September and the four following months constitute the usual breeding season of this 

 species in Eastern Australia; but in the central portion of the continent, Mr. C. E. Cowle has 

 found nests with fresh eggs in March and April. 



Malurus leuconotus. 



WHITK-BACKED SUPERB WAKBLER. 

 Malurus leacouofus, Gould, Proo. Zool. Soc, 18G5, p. 198; id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 

 332 (1865); id., Bds. Austr., fol., Suppl., pi. 24 (1869); Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. 

 IV, p. 291 (1879). 

 Adult ih.kle— Like the adult male of Malurus leucopterus, but of a slighllij brighter cobalt- 

 blue, and having the centre of the back white instead of deej) cobalt-blue, as in that species. 7'otal 

 length 4.-7 inches, wing 1 '9, tail :.'■//, bill OS.i, tarsus OS. 



Distribution.— Western New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia, North- 

 western Australia. 



||;N his original description of Malurus leuconotus. Gould describes the secondaries as being 

 Jl. white. Dr. Sharpe, in the "Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum,"'^ states that the 

 innermost secondaries are pure white, the outer one brown on the inner web, white on the 

 external one." The tail measurement in Gould's original description (3^ths) is clearly a 

 typographical error, which is perpetuated in his Handbook, for in his "Supplement to the 

 Birds of Australia," where the figures are stated to be of the natural size, the tail is there 

 represented as being about two inches and a half in length. Although I have examined 

 specimens from various localities resembling Malurus leucopterus, Gould, and differing in havmg 

 the upper portion and centre of the back white, I am by no means certain that they are distinct 

 from that species. This is strengthened by the knowledge that they were obtained in some 

 instances in districts where M. leucopterus is also found. Among the adult males now before me 

 belonging to this white-backed form, are examples from the north-west of Port Augusta, 

 obtained by Mr. Kendal Broadbent, who in the same locality procured numerous specimens of 

 M. leucopterus; adult males and a female, obtained with their nests and eggs, by Mr. James 

 Ramsay at Tyndarie, New South Wales, in 1881-2; these were originally spirit specimens, and 

 the adult female is indistinguishable from that of M. leucopterus, which is plentiful in the district; 

 an adult male, collected by Mr. G. A. Keartland during the journey of the Calvert Exploring 

 Expedition in Western Australia in 1896, and two adult males obtained by Mr. Edwin Ashby 

 at Nackara, South Australia in igoo. 



Referring the birds obtained at Tyndarie, New South Wales, to M. leuconotus, the nest is 

 thus described by Dr. Ramsay I:— "The nest, like that of all other members of the genus, is a 

 dome-shaped oblong structure of fine grass, ornamented and mixed with cobweb and wool, and 

 lined inside with cotton from the native 'cotton-bush,' or the silky-down from the seed-pods 

 of an Asclepiad. The length of the nest is 5-5 inches by 3-3 inches, and it was placed in a small 

 tuft of coarse grass near the ground ; others were found among the lower branches and grass 

 at the base of cotton-bush shrubs. They breed during the months of September, October, and 

 November." 



Four eggs, comprising a set taken by Mr. James Ramsay, are oval in form, the shell being 

 close-grained and its surface smooth and lustreless. They are pure white, with the exception 



• Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. iv., p. 291 (1879). 

 t Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. vii., p. 49 (1S83). 



