THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
At the same time, Miss Fletcher wrote to me that the Bine Wren she saw 
in North Tasmania was obviously different from the one she knew in South 
Tasmania, and. she sent me specimens. These confirmed her observations 
and I named the form 
Malurus cyaneus f [etcher ce. 
Differs from 31. c. australis in its shorter tail ; the blue on the throat 
is darker, and the blue band on the back is lighter. Ringarooma.” 
North Tasmania. 
I also distinguished 
Malurus cyaneus samueli. 
“ Differs from 31. c. cijaneus in having the throat and breast much darker 
blackish-blue, it is also smaller.” Flinders Island, Bass Straits. 
With regard to the distinctions between these forms, A. G. Campbell wrote 
Malurus gouldi (Long-tailed Wren). It is evident, from a number of skins 
collected in Victoria, that the Tasmanian form, with its dusky under parts and 
touches of light blue on the chest, is found on the mainland. Several shades 
are observable in the mantle blue ; occasionally one is found darker even than 
the insular specimen. The measurements given for Tasmania (total length 
5*3, culmen *32, wing 2T, tail 2-7, tarsus ’9), were taken from birds shot at 
Hobart. The Launceston type is smaller in all but the bill (total length 5T, 
bill -38, wing 2T, tail 2-5, tarsus *9). The typical M. cyaneus , found to the north 
of the Dividing Range in Victoria, is invariably white on the under parts, and 
with light brown primaries, while M. elizabethce, the other extreme, from 
King Island, is distinguished by the richness of its colouring, and by the 
Prussian blue on the outer edges of black primaries.” 
Years afterwards Captain S. A. WTiite wrote of the birds at Mallacoota, 
Victoria: “Very plentiful. The blue on the head and mantle of these birds 
is very pale, and approaches the colour of M. c. cyanochlamys. Many of these 
birds were nesting.” Again, reporting about the birds of Lake Victoria and 
Murray River, Captain White states : “ Often met with out in the flooded 
country, living in the tops of the lignum bushes, which were almost submerged. 
Upon comparison they seem to approach the Victorian bird more than the 
South Australian form, the blue being darker in the latter bird.” Of the 
Flinders Island form Captain S. A. W 7 hite notes : “ Blue Wrens were plentiful 
amid the thick undergrowth on the borders of swampy ground, and in the 
tangled mass of giant bracken on the hill and mountain side. Colour of mantle 
and crown of head is a distinct shade of blue to 31. cyaneus .” 
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