BLUE WREN. 
surface of flight- quills hair-brown with huffy- white margins ; lower aspect of tail 
similar to its upper surface. Eyes dark brown, feet brownish, bill reddish-brown. 
Total length 133 mm. ; culmen 8, wing 49, tail 58, tarsus 23. Figured. Collected 
at Orange, New South Wales, on the 13th of July, 1909. 
Nest. Oval, with entrance nearer the top. Composed of grass and rootlets and spiders’ 
cocoons, and lined with feathers. 6 or 7 inches high by 3 or 4 wide. 
Eggs. Clutch, three or four. White covered with red or brownish-red spots, more on the 
larger end. 17 mm. by 13. 
Breeding-season. July to February. 
It is unfortunate that this species should have an involved early history which 
must he referred to here. 
Its beauty appealed to the early voyageurs , and the first mention we find 
of it is in Ellis’s Narr. Voy. Captain Cook, where on p. 22 he recorded that at 
Adventure Bay, South Tasmania, they met with “ A small bird of the motacilla 
genus with a bright blue head, which we, on that account, called Motacilla 
cyanea .” 
In the official account of Cook’s Voyages, Vol. I., p. 109, is also written 
“ [At Adventure Bay, Tasmania] there are also three or four small birds, one 
of which is of the thrush kind ; and another small one, with a pretty long tail, 
has part of the head and neck of a most beautiful azure colour, from whence 
we named it Motacilla cyanea .” This account was published in 1784, while 
Ellis’s book had appeared in 1782, and thence Latham in his General Synops. 
Birds, Vol. II., pt. 2, p. 501, 1783, quoted it in connection with his Superb 
Warbler, figured on pi. Lin. from a specimen in the “ Leverian Museum,” for 
which as locality he only wrote : “ Inhabits Van Diemen's Land , the most 
southern part of New Holland .” He also referred to other specimens as follows : 
“ In Sir Joseph Bank's collection are some of these birds ; one of which differed 
from the above.” 
On Latham’s account solely was based Gmelin’s name of Motacilla, pyanea, 
the only locality reading “ Habitat in terra Van Diemen.” ; that is, for the 
Australian bird, as Latham had also cited as a variety only, an entirely different 
Philippine Island bird, and this was also included by Gmelin. It is therefore 
obvious to the most superficial student of facts that the Tasmanian bird alone 
could bear the name of “ cyanea," whether it was credited to Gmelin, Latham, 
Cook or Ellis. It is a remarkable instance of perversity that, until recently, 
no reference has been made to this indisputable fact, though Gmelin’s name had 
been used, and the Ellis quotation even given for a form from New South Wales, 
while a new name was proposed and made use of for the Tasmanian variety. 
Only a few months after the appearance of Gmelin’s proposal, this bird was 
figured in the Naturalists' Miscellany under the name of Motacilla superba, and 
the vernacular of Superb Warbler was attached to it, a name ever since used 
51 
