328 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



surface much paler ; tail-feathers as in the male, but less bright ; 

 bill and space round the eye reddish brown ; feet brown. 



Sp. 192. MALURUS AMABILIS, Gould. 



Lovely Superb Warbler. 

 Malurus amabilis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part xviii. p. 277. 



Malurus amabilis, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, Supplement, 

 pi. 



The officers of Her Majesty's Surveying Ship Rattlesnake 

 so well employed their time in collecting the natural produc- 

 tions of the Cape York district, that they added very consi- 

 derably to our knowledge of the fauna of that part of the 

 continent. A single and somewhat imperfect specimen of this 

 bird, bearing the words " Cape York, 1849," was transmitted 

 by the late Captain Owen Stanley to the Zoological Society of 

 London ; and it is from this specimen that my description 

 was taken. It is nearly allied to the Malurus elegans, but 

 differs from that bird in its larger bill, in the deeper and more 

 uniform blue of the cheeks and crown, in the darker colouring 

 of the thighs, and in the much greater extent of the white on 

 the tips and margins of the outer tail-feathers. 



I feel assured the female of M. amahilis will be found to 

 closely resemble that sex of M. elegans whenever it is our 

 good fortune to have examples transmitted to us ; and that 

 this desideratum may soon be obtained, as weU as additional 

 skins of the male, is much to be wished. When the Cape York 

 Peninsula is closely explored, not only this, but many other 

 interesting species will reward the collector, and the fauna 

 will probably be found to partake of that of the adjacent island 

 of New Guinea, as well as of forms peculiar to New South 

 Wales. 



Head, ear-coverts, and centre of the back delicate violet- 

 blue ; lores, throat, breast, crescent across the upper part of 

 the back, and the rump deep bluish-black ; scapularies chest- 



