APPENDIX. 10 J y 



egg aud ihe skin of lis tmy ;uchitect, takou 2Jud October. Describing 

 it for the " Ibis, Mr. Lc Souef remarks : " The nest is a bea.utiful 

 structure, built lu a thick bunch of leaves and flowers at the end of a 

 bnrnch of red-flowering melalcuca. It is very small, and domed, and 

 is composed almost eutiiely of the soft, downy, young melaleuca leaves 

 aud buds, all well bound together with cobwebs among the larger leaves 

 of the tree, which almost completely hide tin: wonderful structiue. It 

 is lined at the bottom with a little white down and some yellowish cob- 

 webs, aud measures, externally: breadth, 1^ inches; depth, 3 inches, 

 ihe sm;ill entrance is neai' the top, and without any porch. ' 



140. — Malleus elizabetile. — Campbell. 

 DARK-BLUE WREiSi. 



He/erence. — Ihis, Uctober, lyoo. 

 Habitat. — King Island (Bass ISlrait}. 



Observations. — Some natuiahsts, especially yoimger ones, are apt to 

 jiunp at conclusions without suihcient proof, while older ones occasionally 

 take things for granted, as in the case of the Western (Long-billed^ 

 Magpie. Of coiu'es eveiybody knows a Magpie, and the Western bird 

 was put down as identical with its Eastern congener. So it has been with 

 the Deautilul Blue Wrens. Those pi'ocui'ed on King Island by the Expe- 

 dition of the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, twelve years ago, 

 Were put down by collectors (including myself) a.s Mai urns yuuldi; of 

 course they could be no other. But i have since obtained a series of 

 skins of Blue Wrens from Tasmania to the tropics, and find tiie King 

 Island to be very distinct; in fact tliere is more difference between 

 It and the other Blue Wrens than the apparent difference between 

 M. cyuneus aud J/, gouldi. 



The cliai-acteristics of the King Island bird ai'e, that it is the largest 

 of ah, and has a decided darker shade of blue — brilhant ultramarine 

 being the nearest colour. 



The tail is dark-blue, while there is quite a wash of blue on the bufl'y- 

 white understu^face below the band of velvety-blacK, and on the outer 

 edges of some of the piimaries. The female is similar to M . cyaneus, 

 but much larger and slightly darker-brown in coloiu", with a slight bluish 

 tinge in the feathers of, the taU.. 



Out of comphment to my wife, who has assisted me much by tran- 

 scribing and correcting rough drafts of my work (often much interlined, 

 and not always written like copjier-phite), and who has shown much for- 

 bearance when the study of my " hobby ' has, I fear, ofttimes ridden 

 rough-shod over domestic duties, I propose the name M. elizabethce for 

 the new species or variety, and that it be known on the vernacular list 

 as the Dark Blue Wren, in contradistinction to Dr. Sharpe's Silvei'y 

 (Light) Blue W^ren of the tropics. 



