WHITE-WINGED WREN. 
little birds nesting in great numbers 300 to 400 miles east of here at this 
very time, we never found one nest with eggs or young.” 
Mr. J. W. Mellor has written me : “ This Wren has a very wide dis- 
tribution over the northern portions of South Australia, where I have seen it 
abundant in the open country about Port Augusta and Port Germein on 
Spencer’s Gulf shores. It loves the open blue bush and salt bush country in 
these dry regions, and the male is very conspicuous with his bright blue coat 
tipped with white on the wings. They are comparatively tame, but directly 
you start to stalk them, they keep flying straight away from you and, keeping 
well out of gun-shot, will lead you a long way and then double and fly right 
back to the spot they started from, where their mates are keeping to the bushes ; 
these little brown birds do not fly away like the bright colored males — there are 
several of these to each bright male in a small covey. I also found them very 
plentiful in the salt and blue bush country at Yunter, South Australia on the 
line to Broken Hill, and between there and Teehulpa Goldfields.” 
Some years ago Mr. Tom Carter sent me his field notes which I here 
include as written : “ M alums leuconotus. Having always been dubious as 
to whether the White-backed Wren on mainland is distinct from cyanotus, I put 
my notes under the latter heading, Malurus cyanotus. The White- winged Wren 
is the most abundant species of Malurus in the Gascoyne and North-west Cape 
districts, and although in your 1912 “ Reference List ” you give this species as 
occurring generally through West Australia, I do not think that it is ever seen 
in the South-west south of the Swan River, certainly not in the coastal timber 
areas. About Pt. Cloates and the Gascoyne, these birds were common in 
good seasons, feeding in the thickets, and on open flats with scattered patches 
of scrub. The Roly-Poly bush (Aboriginal Mallorang ) that grows quickly after 
summer rains in the above districts was much frequented by them, as 
affording good cover, and no doubt plenty of insect food. Their nests were 
not infrequently built inside these annual “ bushes.” The full-plumaged males 
are usually wild and shy as compared wibh the remainder of a family party, 
which are much less timid. The male birds have a very pleasant trilling song, 
which is often uttered during the night, perhaps at some slight alarm. They 
appear to breed anytime after rains ; the nest is usually not far from the 
ground. On December 8th, 1898, I watched a brood of young leaving a nest 
built in a Roly-Poly bush near Yardie Creek. August 28th, 1911. Recently 
fledged young were seen near Point Cloates, and a few days afterwards male 
birds were shot in immature plumage, that certainly seemed to be breeding, 
judging by enlarged sexual organs.” 
Since then an agreement has practically been reached, but the field notes 
of other writers must be interposed before reaching Carter’s final account. 
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