Malurus gouldii and Malurus cyaneus. 61 



young male are brownish which, in the old male, are black. In 

 both young and old female they are rufous. The older the female 

 the deeper the blue of the tail. In skins a. b. c, collected on 

 4/8/94, 15/7/96, 1/11/96 ; the tails quills are brown. In a brown 

 male shot 26/8/93, the bill and tail were like those of a female, 

 but the lores were different. Young and old of both sexes in 

 irregular dates of the autumn are alike, brownish, and this 

 sombre attire of each sex, but for the lores, would, sometimes, 

 confuse the observer with the best of field-glasses. 



A. Previous references. 



The late Mr. John Gould, while writing on the genus Malurus, 

 in his " Handbook to the Birds of Australia," remarks : — " The 

 gay attire is only assumed during tlie pairing season, and is 

 retained for a very short time, after which the sexes are alike 

 in coloring." Continuing, he says, " During the months of 

 winter it associates in small troops of 6 — 8 in number, which 

 continually traverse the district in which they were bred. At 

 this period of the year the adult males throw off their fine livery, 

 and the plumage of the sexes becomes so near alike that a minute 

 examination is requisite to distinguish them."' 



" Relative to the above statements, that the males of the genus 

 Malurus only assume their full plumage during the pairing season, 

 and that the adult males throw ofi" their fine livery in winter, 

 and can hardly be distinguished from the females — Gould is 

 decidedly in error." 8o writes Mr. A. J. North,'^ following on 

 with some observations in justitication. With the first part of 

 Mr. Gould's theory I agree in part, and only so because all facts 

 away from the main issue have not been recorded by this great 

 ornithologist. I am well able to prove that the full livery is 

 obtained in autumn as well as in spring in different specimens, 

 though not to such an extent in the former as in the latter. 

 With the second part of his observations I take exception only 

 to his statement of the period of moult being winter instead of 

 autumn principally. In all this I am ojjposed to the theory of 

 Mr. North. I have observed the same as Mr. North as regards 

 seeing full plumaged males at the end of May and monthly up to 



1 Gould. Handbook Birds of Australia, vol. i., pp. 317-18. 



2 P.L.S. N.S.W., vol. v., 2nd series, p. 505. 



