BLACK-BACKED WREN. 
Nest. Dome-shaped, with entrance near the top. Composed of grass, wool, and bark, 
and lined with fine grass, wool, etc. 5 inches high by 3 to 3| wide. 
Eggs. Clutch, three to four. White to pinkish-white blotch or spotted with purplish- 
red to red, more at the larger end, where sometimes a zone is formed. 16-18 mm 
by 11-12. 
Breeding-season. September to November. 
Gould’s account of this species, one of his own discoveries, reads : “ The 
Belts of the Murray in South Australia were the only places in which I 
observed this species ; but, although it was tolerably abundant there, it was 
so extremely shy and distrustful that specimens were obtained with the 
greatest difficulty. It was most frequently observed on the ground, partic- 
ularly in the small open glades and little plains by which the outer belt of this 
vast scrub is diversified. The period of my visit was in winter ; consequently 
the specimens I collected -were all out of colour, or, more properly speaking, 
divested of the rich blue and black plumage, in which state a single specimen 
was afterwards forwarded to me by one of the party that accompanied His 
Excellency Colonel Gawler and Captain Sturt, when those gentlemen visited 
the Murray in 1839 ; and other examples have since been received. It is a 
most interesting species, inasmuch as it possesses characters intermediate 
between the M. cyaneus and M. splendens, having the blue belly and 
conspicuous pectoral band of the latter and the black back of the former ; 
from both, however, it differs in the length of its toes, which are much shorter 
than those of its near allies ; this difference in structure exerts a corresponding 
influence upon its habits and actions, for while the others run over the ground 
with great facility, the Black-backed Superb Warbler far exceeds them in this 
respect. Instead of exerting any power of flight, those I saw effected their 
escape by the extraordinary manner in which they tripped over the small 
openings and through the scrub, each troop appearing to have a leader), and 
keeping just beyond the range of the gun.” 
Mr. E. E. Howe has written me : “I first met with this beautiful bird at 
Pine Plains, and since at Garina and Kow Plains. Mr. Ross and I had good 
opportunities to notice that at every nest (and we found a good number), only 
one male and a single female were about. This species keeps to the more 
open and stunted mallee, and on the plains where turpentine and other 
bushes abound. We also noticed a good many in the salt and blue bushes. 
Some we found building, and only the female was noticed at work, but the male 
was observed to accompany her and sing.” 
Mr. J. W. Mellor’s notes read : u M. melanotus is found along the Elinder’s 
Ranges near Port Augusta and also farther south, where it inhabits the low 
bushes along the slopes of the hills and in the sheltered gullies where the 
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