The male in its summer dress has the crown of the head, back, scapularies, and upper tail-coverts deep metallic blue; ear-coverts verditer-blue; throat and all the under surface deep shining violet-blue; lores, crescent-shaped mark across the chest and back of the neck deep velvet-black; external edges of the wing-feathers green; tail greenish blue, indistinctly barred with a darker tint; bill black; eyes and feet blackish brown. The female has the bill, lores and circle round the eyes reddish brown; crown of the head and all the upper surface brown; the external margins of the wing-feathers slightly tinged with green; tail as in the male, but paler, and slightly tipped with white. The Plate represents a male and female of the natural size. [Illustration: MALURUS ELEGANS: _Gould_. _J. & E. Gould del^t._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._ ] MALURUS ELEGANS, _Gould_. Graceful Wren. _Malurus elegans_, Gould, Birds of Australia, Part I. Aug. 1837. _Djur-jeel-ya_, Aborigines of the lowland districts of Western Australia. This is not only the largest species of the genus yet discovered, but may be considered as one of the most beautiful and elegant of its race: the delicate verditer-blue of the centre of the back, and the larger size and more spatulate form of its tail-feathers, at once distinguish it from _Malurus Lamberti_, the species to which it is most nearly allied. It is an inhabitant of the western coast of Australia; all the specimens I possess were collected at Swan River, where it is tolerably abundant. Mr. Gilbert states, that although in its economy it very closely resembles _M. splendens_, it nevertheless differs from that species in the nature of the localities it frequents, which are usually swampy situations, while _M. splendens_ is more generally spread over all parts of the country. It is also said to differ slightly in its song, in commencing with one distinct note and then singing precisely like the former. The nest, which is neither characterized by neatness nor compactness, is dome-shaped, with a hole in the side for an entrance, and is generally formed of the thin paper-like bark of the Tea-tree (_Melaleuca_), and lined with feathers: it is also usually suspended to the foliage of this tree, and occasionally to that of other shrubs which grow in its favourite localities. The eggs are four in number, of a delicate flesh-white freckled with spots of reddish brown, which are much thicker at the larger end; they are about eight lines long and six lines broad. The breeding-season commences in September and continues during the three following months. The food consists of insects. The males are subject to the same law relative to the seasonal change of plumage as the _Malurus cyaneus_, and the other members of the group.