BLUE WREN. 
matter much until forms were separated, and this did not take place until Gould 
pointed out that the Tasmanian bird differed especially in its longer tail, 
and therefore called it longicaudus. Previously an entirely different bird had been 
named Malurus longicaudus, so that Gould’s name was invalid. This was 
noticed when Sharpe monographed the genus in the Catalogue Birds British 
Museum, and not noticing the confusion in the type localities, named the 
Tasmanian bird gouldi. A couple of years afterwards he noted the different 
coloration shown by birds from South Queensland, and distinguished these 
as cyanochlamys, still accepting Sydney birds as typical cyaneus. Twenty 
years later Campbell named the bird living on King Island, Bass Straits, as 
Malurus elizabethce. Then North, investigating the history of the species, 
observed that the first form to be named was the Tasmanian, and as it was a 
new discovery, had no hesitation in rejecting the name in use, gouldi, for the 
correct name cyaneus, and superseding the well-known name for the 
mainland form by a new one, australis. These were all distinct, but were just 
as obviously only subspecific forms of one species, and so I treated them in 
my Reference List in 1912. The examination of a fair number showed that 
other subspecies were just as definitely marked, so that I ranged seven 
subspecies as follows : 
Malurus cyaneus cyaneus (Gmelin). 
Tasmania. 
Malurus cyaneus cyanochlamys Sharpe. 
South Queensland. 
Malurus cyaneus australis North. 
New South Wales. 
Malurus cyaneus henriettce Mathews. 
“ Differs from M. c. cyaneus in its shorter tail ; from M. c. australis in its 
coloration, that subspecies approaching M. c. cyanochlamys, while this agrees 
more closely with that of the typical subspecies. (Olinda), Victoria.” 
Victoria. 
Malurus cyaneus leggei Mathews. 
“ Differs from M. c. henriettce in its lighter coloration, though darker 
than M. c. australis. Point (error for Port) Adelaide, S.A.” 
South Australia. 
Malurus cyaneus ashbyi Mathews. 
“ Differs from M. c. leggei in its larger size and darker coloration on the 
back. Kangaroo Island.” 
Kangaroo I., South Australia. 
Malurus cyaneus elizabethce Campbell. 
King Island, Bass Straits. 
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