BLUE WREN. 
in the bringing up of the young. They nest from September to December, 
and nests are placed in a variety of positions, from near the ground, sometimes 
right on it, to twenty feet up. The males are very pugnacious during the 
breeding season, and will grasp one another with their little claws and roll over 
and over on the ground uttering shrill cries of rage all the time. The males 
also go through some strange antics to attract the females ; they will erect 
their mantles and puff out their throat feathers, depress their tails, cant over 
on one side and run round and round. The maj ority of the males moult twice 
in the year ; after breeding time, and the young birds have left the care of 
their parents, the males begin to look dull, the brown patches appear, and in 
about fourteen to sixteen days they have become quite brown, and most of 
them have lost all traces of blue by March, yet strange to say, there is a male 
here and there, say one in twenty, that is in bright blue plumage. I believe 
some of these birds which have moulted early, change in May again into the 
blue livery, but the majority go on to July or August, when the dark patches 
begin to appear on the forehead and throat, then rapidly increase till they cover 
the whole of the body. If cats are not kept, they become very fond of human 
habitations and are very tame, taking breadcrumbs, thick cream and the like 
from the hand. They are very local birds, and a pair will remain in one part 
of the garden for years, and build their nest within a few yards of a given spot 
each year, the young accompanying the old birds during the winter, but as soon 
as the following nesting season approaches the old birds drive the young ones 
off, and as a rule, these do not go far off, but take up a locality to their liking 
not far away. They bring up two and sometimes three broods in the year. 
Their notes consist of a feeble little trill while feeding or hunting about for 
food, which is chiefly found on or near the ground, a note of alarm which is 
shriller, and the male birds very sweet but feeble little song at nesting time. 
M. c. cyaneus . This charming little bird is dispersed almost all over Tasmania, 
and I have met with it in a variety of situations, on the plains, in the mountain 
ranges, in dense scrub and forest land, and out in the open country ; the habits 
are the same as those of the mainland bird, also the note. M. c. samueli. This 
bird was very numerous on Blinders Island during our visit, but although 
it is of a distinct shade of blue no difference was found in the habits or note. 
M. c. elizabethce. This bird was met with in many parts of King Island during 
my visit, but habits and note seem same as with all the others. M. c. 
Jienriettce. Widely distributed over Victoria, and I have met with it in almost 
every locality visited. M. c. leggei. These birds are thinly distributed in the 
mangroves along the Port Adelaide River and also along the coast-line where 
the mangroves abound. This to my mind is the largest and most richly coloured 
of the group. M. c. ashbyi. This subspecies keeps fairly well to the coast-line 
* 
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