RED-BACKED WREN. 
Of this form Sylvia dorsalis Lewin and Malurus brownii Vigors and 
Horsfield must be cited as synonyms. 
Ryania melanocephala pyrrhonoia (Mathews). 
North Queensland. 
Ryania melanocephala crnentata (Gould). 
Northern Territory. 
I doubtfully attached to this form as a synonym my M. melanocephalus 
melvillensis, as no series from Port Essington was available for comparison. 
Ryania melanocephala boweri (Ramsay). 
North-west Australia. 
Dealing with Cardwell birds, Campbell and Barnard wrote : “ The 
males of this Wren Warbler were always pretty objects, with their black and 
red colour, as they flew before the observer. The constancy of their dark 
red (blood-coloured) backs separates them from the southern form, with 
more orange-coloured back, melanocephala. Blood-backed Wrens were 
observed both on the lowlands and on the tableland, and several nests were 
secured.” 
Later, criticising birds from the King River, Northern Territory, Campbell 
accepted the differences, but demurred at the acceptance of Port Essington 
as the type locality, in view of Gould’s North-west Coast of Australia. At the 
time Gould wrote (and practically to anyone ignorant of the usage of 
Australians to-day), Port Essington would be correctly ranged as in the 
North-west of Austr aha, and Gould’s own specimen has on the label “ North- 
west Coast, d Port Essington.” 
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