672 Letters, Extracts, and Notices. 



The Superb Warbler of South-eastern Australia. — In the 

 ' Proceedings of the Limiean Society of New South Wales ' 

 for ]901 (vol. xxvi. p. 632) I pointed out that the bird 

 named Motacilla cyanea by Ellis was met with iu January 

 1777 at Adventure Bay, Bruni Island, near the south- 

 eastern coast of Tasmania, and that consequently the name 

 of Malurus cyaneus Ellis would have to stand for the Tas- 

 manian species and that of Malurus superbus Shaw for the 

 well-known species inhabiting South-eastern Australia. 



In the ' Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum ' 

 (vol. iv. p. 286, 1879), Dr. Sharpe gives priority to Dr. Shaw's 

 description and figure of Motacilla superba in White's 

 ' Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales ' over a similar 

 description of Shaw's in his e Naturalist's Miscellany/ an 

 undated publication. In the latter work Dr. Shaw remarks 

 as follows on the page succeeding his description of Motacilla 

 superba and opposite the plate : — ie The beautiful species of 

 Motacilla here figured is a native of that part of New 

 Holland called Van Dieman's Land, and is one of the new 

 species of birds which have been discovered during the 

 voyages to those parts." 



Recently my attention has been drawn to an article in 

 the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History,' 6th series, 

 vol. xv. p. 376 (1895), by Mr. C. D. Sherborn, giving the 

 exact dates of publication of Shaw and Nodder's ' Naturalist's 

 Miscellany,' of which plates 1 to 15 were published in 1789. 

 Motacilla superba was described and figured on plate 10. 

 The name having been based on the Tasmanian species 

 in 1789 is untenable for the birds described by the same 

 author in White's 'Voyage to New South Wales' in 1790. 

 Dr. Sharpe, in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society ' 

 (1881, p. 788), has separated the Queensland birds under 

 the name of Malurus cyanochlamys. As, therefore, Malurus 

 superbus is a mere synonym of the Tasmanian species, 

 Malurus cyaneus Ellis, I wish to propose the name Malurus 

 australis for the Superb Warbler or " Blue Wren " so 

 common in New South Wales, Victoria, and South 

 Australia. — Alfked J. Nokth, Aug. 4th, 1904. 



