BLACK AND WHITE WREN. 
party was led by a male which had not yet acquired nuptial plumage. I have 
often found the same state of things prevailing with parties of the common blue 
White-winged Wren. According to my observations, it is not until the third 
season that males amongst the Maluri assume full nuptial plumage, though 
exceptional cases of early hatched males assuming a partial nuptial garb late 
in the following season undoubtedly occur. Later (November 5th) I procured 
a male in change. This is a late date for such an occurrence and bears out my 
contention as above. Males in brown plumage, too, undoubtedly pair with 
adult females, and become the parent of a brood of young. My first im- 
pressions of Malurus edouardi pointed to the fact of its being the smallest of 
the genus I had hitherto met with. Compared with its nearest congener, 
Malurus cyanotus, it seemed less robust in build, had a shorter tail, and rather 
a feeble voice. The trill notes are similar to those of the blue White-winged 
Wren, but not so sustained or frequently uttered. The brown males and 
females and immature birds I found by no means timid, and, if 4 chirped ’ to, 
would come out of cover and allow of observations at a distance of a few feet. . . 
On Barrow Island this Wren can hardly be called rare, but it is distinctly 
local. My regular beat consisted of about six miles of coastal country to a 
distance inland of half-a-mile. The Wrens frequented only certain portions 
of this tract, but I have no doubt similar localities all around the island would 
be equally favoured. No land birds breeding on the island during my visit, 
and no birds I dissected appeared to be less than six months old. The latter 
fact points to birds having bred immediately after the heavy rains the second 
week in March of last year. In sailing to and from Barrow Island I landed 
on several other islands of the Dampier Archipelago, the majority being much 
nearer to the mainland (Barrow Island is distant about thirty miles), but 
though I kept a very sharp lookout, I could discover no species of Wren on 
any of them. But I observed a blue and white Wren with a party of brown 
birds near Cossack, and on my return from Barrow Island I secured a 
specimen, as well as a brown bird accompanying him . . .” Whitlock 
returned the next year and found the nests and eggs which he has described 
in detail, but did not write much more about their habits, probably because 
there was nothing remarkable to write about. He later published his account 
of the Dirk Hartog birds, writing : “ It is a common bird, I am glad to say, and 
despite the number of cats living a bush life on the island, it is holding its own. 
Its numbers in relation to those of its congeners, Malurus assimilis, I estimate 
at twenty to one, even allowing for the more silent and secretive habits of the 
latter. Though it has its preferences, I visited no part of Dirk Hartog where 
it was not present. When I state that I frequently saw a male sitting on a 
fence just outside the wool -shed door, and that I photographed a nest which 
91 
