322 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



surface brownish wliite ; bill reddish brown ; feet fleshy 

 brown. 



Sp. 187. MALURUS MELANOTUS, Gould. 

 Black-backed Superb Warbler. 

 Malurus melanotus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part viii. p. 163. 



Malurus melanotus, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. iii. pL 20. 



The Belts of the Murray in South Australia were the only 

 places in which I observed this species ; but, although it was 

 tolerably abundant there, it was so extremely shy and dis- 

 trustful that specimens were obtained with the greatest 

 difficulty. It was most frequently observed on the ground, 

 particularly in the small open glades and little plains by 

 which the outer belt of this vast scrub is diversified. The 

 period of my visit was in winter ; consequently the specimens 

 I collected were all out of colour, or, more properly speaking, 

 divested of the rich blue and black plumage, in which state 

 a single specimen was afterwards forwarded to me by one of 

 the party that accompanied His Excellency Colonel Gawler 

 and Captain Sturt, when those gentlemen visited the Murray 

 in 1839; and other examples have since been received. It 

 is a most interesting species, inasmuch as it possesses cha- 

 racters intermediate between the M. cyaneus and M. splen- 

 dens, having the blue belly and conspicuous pectoral band 

 of the latter and the black back of the former ; from both, 

 however, it differs in the length of its toes, which are much 

 shorter than those of its near allies : this difference in struc- 

 ture exerts a corresponding influence upon its habits and 

 actions ; for while the others run over the ground with great 

 facility, the Black-backed Superb Warbler far exceeds them 

 in this respect. Instead of exerting any power of flight, those 

 I saw effected their escape by the extraordinary manner in 

 which they tripped over the small openings and through the 



