Description
Rare engraving of the Superb Fairy-wren by John Latham, the Father of Australian Ornithology, and described by him from the specimen in Sir Ashton Museum. Leverianum.
The first specimen of the Superb Fairy-wren was collected by William Anderson, surgeon and naturalist on Captain James Cook’s third voyage in 1777 when it visited Adventure Bay, Tasmania. He named it Motacilla cyanea but did not live to publish his findings, these were described by his assistant William Ellis n 1782.
(5. MALURUSC YANEUS(E llis).–Motacilla cyanea Ellis (Narr., p.22, 1782). Figured by Ellis, pl. 137, “Van Diemens Land.”)
Modern common name Superb Fairy-wren, Superb Blue Wren, Fairy Wren
Modern binomial name Malurus cyaneus
First described Ellis 1782
Distribution SA, VIC, TAS, NSW & QLD.
Reference Reader’s Digest Book of Birds 2nd ed 1986; Page: 436-437, ill.436 & 437.
From Latham’s A General History of Birds
