Passage: A specimen of the white-winged fairy wrenren was first collected by French naturalists Jean René Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard in September 1818, on Louis de Freycinet's voyage around the Southern Hemisphere. The specimen was subsequently lost in a shipwreck, but a painting entitled Mérion leucoptère by Jacques Arago survived and led to the bird's description in 1824 by French ornithologist Charles Dumont de Sainte-Croix. The name for the species was derived from the Ancient Greek leuko- "white" and pteron "wing". Ironically, the original specimen was the black-plumaged subspecies from Dirk Hartog, which was not recorded for another 80 years. Meanwhile, the widespread wren was discovered by Louis de Freycinet's voyage around the Southern Hemisphere. Other specimen was subsequently lost in a shipwreck, but a painting entitled Mérion leucoptère by Jacques Arago survived and led to the bird's description in 1824 by French
New South Wales