THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
are rather feeble and only resorted to when desirous of moving from one locality 
to another or when suddenly frightened. The song is weak, but is a rather 
pleasing run of notes, usually uttered when perched on some eminence.” 
Mr. H. Stuart Dove also sent me some interesting nesting notes from 
which I quote: “It is often stated that our ‘Blue Wren’ is polygamous; 
I am convinced that this is not so. The number of sober-coloured individuals 
which are often seen with one gorgeous male are simply the young of both 
sexes, which keep together and in company with their parents for some time 
after leaving the nest, and have been mistaken for a ‘ harem.’ The adults 
are in pairs only when nesting-time comes round again. . . . Finished 
building on 20th October, 4 eggs on 24th, laid on successive days and female 
sitting. The four eggs were hatched on November 7th, giving fourteen days’ 
incubation ; young were blind and naked. On 13th November the eyes were 
open, head, wings and parts of body well covered with sprouting quills, having 
blue-black appearance. The young had left the nest on morning of November 
17th, giving ten days hatching to flying. . . . Either the female or male 
Malurus was at the nest about every three minutes in the morning with food 
for young, and I saw the female carry away excreta from nest in her bill, 
carrying it through a space in a tall Blanket wood opposite nest and dropping 
it on further side. There were two males about the nest, but I only saw one 
feed the young.” 
Mr. J. W. Mellor writes : “ These birds are very plentiful in Tasmania, 
in any thicket or bushy country their pleasing little twitter may be heard, 
or the song of the male bird as he calls to his mates, several of which seem to 
go with one male as is the case with other members of the genus. I saw M. 
elizabethce on King Island ; they were in the low bushes and thick undergrowth 
about the back of Currie Harbour ; they were lively little birds, but like the 
other members of the genus, I brought them out of their hiding places by making 
a squeaking noise with my lips ; they are inquisitive little fellows, and want 
to know what is going on ; the females come first for curiosity, and then the 
males will make their appearance. Their notes are the same as those uttered 
by the Tasmanian or mainland representatives.” 
Dove published a complete account of the Tasmanian Blue Wren in the 
Emu, Vol. IX., p. 157, 1910, which may be referred to for further details, but 
space forbids the complete quotation of the very numerous notes in that 
periodical about this popular little subject. 
The technical history of the forms of this species is complex and interesting, 
and the earlier part has already been noticed in detail, so will only be here out- 
lined. The earliest Blue Wren was described from South Tasmania, but almost 
simultaneously it was figured from Sydney, New South Wales. This did not 
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