INSESSORES. 329 



nut; wings brown, the secondaries slightly margined with 

 white ; abdomen white, very slightly tinged with buff on the 

 flanks ; tail dull greenish blue, the four lateral feathers mar- 

 gined externally and largely tipped with white ; hinder part 

 of the thighs black ; bill black ; irides and feet dark brown. 



Sp. 193. MALURUS CORONATUS, Gould. 



Crowned Superb Warbler. 

 Malurus coronatus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part xxv, p. 221. 



Malurus coronatus, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol.. Supplement, 

 pi. 



Charming as are many of the smaller Australian birds, I 

 think the present species is entitled to the palm for elegance 

 and beauty, not only among the members of its own genus, 

 numerous and beautiful as they really are, but among all other 

 groups of birds yet discovered; the charm, too, is consider- 

 ably enhanced by the great novelty in the style of its colour- 

 ing ; for in how few birds do we find the lovely lilac tint 

 which encircles and adorns the head of this bird ! a similar 

 tint, it is true, appears in the nape of the Bower-birds {Chla- 

 mydodercB) ; but I scarcely know of a third instance 



Having premised thus much respecting this new Malurus, 

 T now come to the painful task of naming its collector ; I say 

 painful, because the gentleman who shot and brought it to 

 this country has fallen, like many other Australian explorers, 

 a victim to the climate of that country, congenial to Europeans 

 as it generally is. It will be recollected by all those who take 

 an interest in scientific explorations, that Mr. Elsey accom- 

 panied A. C. Gregory, Esq., as surgeon and naturalist on his 

 great journey from the Victoria River to Moreton Bay, Soon 

 after his return to England it became evident that he had 

 contracted the disease called hcsmo^ti/sis, which speedily 

 obliged him to remove to a warmer climate : he selected one 



