THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA 
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Notes . — In pairs or family parties, inhabiting dwarf scrub-lands and 
spinifex. The male is extremely shy and keeps to the cover of bushes or 
spinifex. Similar in habits to the other species of Wrens. Food: insects 
and their larvae. 
Nest. — A dome-shaped structure with a side entrance near the top, 
composed of very fine dried grasses matted together with spiders’ webs, 
cocoons, and wool ; lined with fine grasses, cocoons, and wool. Usually 
placed in a low bush or in a tuft of spinifex. 
Eggs. — Three or four, white, marked all over, but particularly at the 
larger end, with small dots and splashes of pale reddish-brown, where 
sometimes a zone is formed. Breeding-season : June to September. 
6. Blue-and-white Wren M alums cyanotus Gould — 6A. Female 
cy-a-ndt'-ns — Gk, cyanos, blue; Gk, noton , back. 
Distribution . — The interior of southern Queensland, New South 
Wales, and Victoria, to the coastal districts of Western Australia. 
Notes . — Also called White-winged Wren. In pairs or family parties, 
showing a preference for spinifex, salt-hush, blue-bush, and open roly-poly 
country. Except that the fully coloured male is shy, it is similar in habits 
to the other species of Wrens. Food: insects and their larvae. 
Nest . — A dome-shaped structure with a side entrance near the top, 
composed of dried grasses, and lined with feathers or wool. Usually 
placed in a low bush or in a tuft of tall grass, close to the ground. 
Eggs . — Three or four, white, finely freckled with purplish or reddish- 
brown markings; some eggs have a well-defined zone at the larger end. 
Breeding-season: September to January. 
7. White-backed Wren Malurus leuconotus Gould 
leuc-o-not’-us — Gk, leucos, white; Gk, noton , back. 
Distribution . — Interior of South Australia. 
Notes . — Nothing is definitely known of the habits or economy of this 
species, few specimens only being in existence. The female is similar to 
the female Blue-and-white Wren. 
Nest . — A dome-shaped oblong structure of fine grass, ornamented 
and mixed with cobweb and wool, and lined inside with cotton from the 
native “cotton-bush,” or the silky down from the seed-pods of an Asclepiad. 
Placed in a small tuft of coarse grass near the ground, at other times among 
the lower branches and grass at the base of a cotton-bush. 
Eggs . — Three or four, white, with a faint pinkish or reddish tinge, 
minutely freckled and spotted with dull red, particularly at the larger end 
where often a zone is formed. 
8. Variegated Wren Malurus larnberti Vigors and Horsfield — 8A. 
Female 
larnberti— A. B. Lambert (1761-1842), Secretary, Linnean Society, 
London. 
