tite eth i fai a i ae et { iaghe! ‘ re Aue (ies tisk i cn Hi suit bia : Hei vaste NAHE oe a neti tibnies Kk . maui, H E sath Hae i ie Baal ity if i ti a i at i He un He a Seieitbesepe es x Boar oe Sees eee Spee i i Git shy ae erat i ue i = Hh anh An ae i = a A ue ue ere = Tee ait i uy a) LS eee a. re 7. i ay a < Wy, eee aan RACH ij i hy yt 4 yy os Mi ta hp 4 oe i * e 7 q 7 at * ' : : i 4, an Wits Oe 11 2 - 1 : , i ee AST at eT ey a eae ed ee MS ee ay - ; eh =I) i Li P (Gael 7 Ey ewig THE BIRDS OF NEW GUINEA AND THE ADJACENT PAPUAN ISLANDS, INCLUDING MANY NEW SPECIES RECENTLY DISCOVERED IN AUSTRALIA. BY JOHN GOULD, F.RS. COMPLETED AFTER THE AUTHOR’S DEATH BY R. BOWDLER SHARPE, F.LS. &c, \ \ ZOOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT, BRITISH MUSEUM. VOLUME II. LONDON: HENRY SOTHERAN & CO., 86 PICCADILLY. 1875-1888. [All rights reserved. | ALERE FLAMMAM. PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCTS, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. Artamides unimodus 5 temmincki . Campephaga strenua Graucalus pusillus 43 axillaris 3 maforensis Edoliisoma montanum . % poliopse Lalage meesta Micreeca assimilis Gerygone dorsalis Pseudogerygone notata 3 chrysogastra 3 cinereiceps Heteromyias cinereifrons Monachella muelleriana Peecilodryas bimaculata * albifacies % placens Hypothymis rowleyi Todopsis cyanocephala i bonapartii * wallacii 35 gyayl Malurus alboscapulatus Rhipidura rubrofrontata - leucothorax a cockerelli es opistherythra - hamadryas . ss fuscorufa M dryas . a hyperythra : Myiagra fulviventris a cervinicauda . i ferrocyanea Macherirhynchus albifrons . 35 nigripectus Heteranax mundus Arses telescophthalmus » batantee >, aruensis > insularis Piezorhynchus brodiei . ne browni . o richardsi ~ castus . a vidua . ¢ 5 squamulatus . 5 medius . As axillaris Monarcha periophthalmicus . % kordensis 5 melanonota. Peltops blainvillii Pomarea rufocastanea . » castaneiventris 5 ugiensis CONTENTS. VOLUME II. Slaty-grey Cuckoo-Shrike Blue Cuckoo-Shrike Blue-grey Campephaga Ramsay’s Cuckoo-Shrike Bruijn’s Cuckoo-Shrike Mafoor-Island Cuckoo-Shrike Mount Arfak Cuckoo-Shrike . Grey-faced Cuckoo-Shrike Black-browed Caterpillar-catcher Western Micreeca Rufous-backed Gerygone White-spotted Flycatcher Yellow-bellied Flycatcher Grey-headed Flycatcher Ashy-fronted Flycatcher Chat-like Flycatcher Black-and-White Flycatcher . Southern White-faced Flycatcher . Yellow-banded Robin Rowley’s Blue Flycatcher New-Guinea Todopsis Bonaparte’s Todopsis Wallace’s Todopsis Gray’s Todopsis Pied Malurus Rufous-fronted Fantail Flycatcher White-breasted Fantail Flycatcher Cockerell’s Fantail Flycatcher Larat Fantail Flycatcher Rufous-backed Fantail Flycatcher Timor-Laut Fantail Flycatcher Wood-Fantail : : : Rufous-breasted Fantail Flycatcher Buff-bellied Flycatcher Fawn-tailed Flycatcher Purple-backed Flycatcher White-fronted Flycatcher Black-breasted Flycatcher Forbes’s Pied Flycatcher Frilled-necked Flycatcher Large Frilled-necked Flycatcher Little Frilled-necked Flycatcher Orange-collared Flycatcher Brodie’s Flycatcher Brown's Flycatcher Richards’s Flycatcher White-crowned Flycatcher White-backed Pied Flycatcher Scaly-necked Pied Flycatcher Coppinger’s Flycatcher White-tufted Flycatcher Black-spectacled Flycatcher . Mysore Yellow Fiycatcher Papuan Yellow Flycatcher Broad-billed Flycatcher Rufous-and-chestnut Flycatcher Chestnut-bellied Flycatcher Ugi-Island Flycatcher Date. 1884. 1880. 1876. 1884. 1883. 1882. 1882. 1886. 1883. 1880. 1884. 1886. 1886. 1886. 1879. 1882. 1884. 1882. 1879. 1882. 1878. 1878. 1878. 1878. 1877. 1886. 1884. 1884. 1884. 1883. 1883. 1876. 1886. 1885. 1884. 1884. 1877. 1877. 1884. 1879. 1879. 1879. 1879. 1884. 1884, 1884. 1884. 1884. 1884, 1888. 1888. 1883. 1877. 1877. 1875. 1884, 1884. 1884. j 2s. ee ARTAMIDES UNIMODUS. WHart del. et lith. Walter, Imp. ARTAMIDES UNIMODUS. Slaty-rrey Cuckoo-Shrike. Graucalus unimodus, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1883, pp. 55, 198. Tuts fine Cuckoo-Shrike is very nearly allied to Artamides ce@ruleigriseus of the Aru Islands, like which species it has buff-coloured axillaries and under wing-coverts. Excepting in this respect, however, the two birds are quite different ; for 4. c@ruleigriseus is blue-grey instead of slaty grey, and the male has only the lores, feathers in front of the eye, the base of the chin, and the base of the cheeks black, showing none of the black on the throat and fore neck which distinguishes 4. unimodus. ; The females of the two species are also distinct ; for besides the blue-grey colour of 4. c@ruleigrriseus, the latter has the lores grey, and no black on the chin or cheeks, whereas in 4. unimodus the lores and the base of the chin and base of the cheeks are black. The female bird was shot by Mr. H. O. Forbes in the island of Larat in the Tenimber group on the 4th of August 1882, and the male was obtained in Loetoer, on the mainland of Timor Laut, in September of the same year. | Mr. Forbes informs us that he found this species frequenting the mangroves along the shores on both - occasions when he procured it. The following descriptions are taken from the type specimens kindly lent to us by Dr. Sclater :— Adult male (type of species). General colour above uniform slaty grey; lesser and median wing-coverts like the back ; greater coverts, bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills blackish, washed externally with ashy grey and edged with slaty grey like the back, lighter on the margins of the primaries ; upper tail-coverts like the back, but crossed with dusky bars under certain lights and with more or less of a subterminal shade of black ; tail-feathers black, barred across with dusky under certain lights, the feathers edged with ashy grey round the tips; forehead slightly shaded with darker slate-colour than the crown; nasal plumes, lores, feathers round the eye, ear-coverts, sides of hinder crown, and entire throat and centre of fore neck greenish black, the lower part of this latter washed with slaty grey ; sides of neck and rest of under surface slaty grey, darker on the under tail-coverts ; thighs black ; under wing-coverts pale fawn-colour or buff with slaty-grey centres to the feathers, all the lower greater coverts and those near the edge of the wings blackish slate-colour ; quills dusky below, ashy grey on their inner face ; “ bill, legs, and feet black ; iris dark brown ” (ZZ. O. Fordes). Total length 13°8 inches, culmen 1-25, wing 7°60, tail 6°5, tarsus 1:15. Adult female. Differs from the male in wanting the black on the throat and fore neck ; the lores and feathers in front of the eye, a spot at the base of the cheeks, and another smaller mark at the base of the chin black; axillaries and under wing-coverts more wholly ochreous buff, less distinctly washed with slaty grey in the centres; thighs grey like the rest of the under surface; “iris black” (ZZ. O. Fordes). Total length 13°6 inches, culmen 1°3, wing 6-2, tail 5:9, tarsus 1°15. The Plate represents the adult male and female described above, of about the natural size. They are now in the British Museum. [R. B. S.J] kkows ul Pe * ati J ' “vs Nae Taek 2 7 af 7 Ly Pare eo : " ; > ¥t ory ogee ae eee ele a —.— oe eee Sine ae z aot PS ki oa Ne ear 4 a TEMMOINCKI. ARTAMIDES Welter. Bra. Jbnld &W. Hurt deb a bitiv. ARTAMIDES TEMMINCKL. Blue Cuckoo-Shrike. Ceblepyris temmincki, S. Miller, Ver. Natuurl. Gesch. Land- en Volkenk. p. 191. Campephaga temmincki, Gray, Gen. of Birds, i. p. 283.—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 172.—Gray, Hand-list of Birds, i. p. 337, no. 5081. Graucalus temmincki, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 354.—Hartl. Journ. fir Ornith. 1864, p. 446.—Walden, Trans. Zool. Soc. viii. pp. 68, 113, pl. xiii—Meyer, Ibis, 1879, p. 129. Artamides temmincki, Sharpe, Brit. Mus. Cat. Birds, iy. p. 15.—Id. Abhandl. Mus. Dresden, Abth. i. p. 363. I wave already figured several Graucah or Cuckoo-Shrikes in my work on the Birds of Australia, and have hitherto been content to keep them in the genus Graucalus; but Mr. Sharpe, who has recently classified the family of the Campephagid@, considers that there are really four genera in which the Australian Cuckoo- Shrikes ought to be placed, and he arranges the species figured in my work as follows. Graucalus tenui- rostris should be placed in the genus Edolisoma; Campephaga karu, C. leucomela, and C. numerals in Lalage; so that only Graucalus melanops, G. parvirostris, G. mentalis, G. hypoleucus, and G. swainsoni remain in the genus Graucalus; Pteropodocys phasianella he admits to be generically distinct. As Count Salvadori, who has also studied these birds, agrees with Mr. Sharpe in many of his conclusions, I have deemed it best in the present work to adopt the arrangement of the last-named author. Graucalus, as a genus, appears to be widely distributed, as it occurs not only in Africa and Madagascar, but extends all over India and Ceylon, through the Burmese countries to Formosa, and down the Malayan peninsula, throughout the Moluccas, to Australia and Tasmania; and one species has even straggled to New Zealand. ‘The members of the genus Artamides, on the other hand, are not Australian, though they occur in New Caledonia and thence extend through the New-Hebrides group, New Guinea, and the Moluccas to the Indo-Malayan islands, the Malayan peninsula, and the Andamans: they are remarkable for very much stronger and stouter bills than the remainder of the Cuckoo-Shrikes. Both the genera Graucalus and Artamides contain representatives which are barred below, and others which are more or less uniform in coloration. The present species belongs to the uniform section of the genus Artamides, and is one of the most beautifully coloured not only of the genus to which it belongs, but also of the whole family of Cuckoo- Shrikes, which are, as a rule, remarkably plain-plumaged birds. Its home is the Island of Celebes; and here it appears only to inhabit the mountains. It was discovered by Forsten in the neighbourhood of Gorontalo ; and Dr. Meyer procured four specimens near Kakas, in the mountains of the Minahassa (about 2000 feet high). He never saw it elsewhere; so that at present it is only known to inhabit the north-eastern promontory of Celebes. The following description of the species is given by Mr. Sharpe in his ‘ Catalogue :-— «¢ Adult. General colour greyish azure, with more or less of a cobalt hue, especially on the wings and tail, the inner webs of the quills and tail-feathers being blackish; base of forehead, lores, and feathers in front of the eye blackish with a blue gloss; under surface of body azure-blue like the upper; under wing- coverts like the breast, the lower series and the underside of the quills ashy. ‘Total length 12 inches, culmen 1, wing 5:95, tail 59, tarsus 0-95.” A second specimen in the British Museum collected by Dr. Meyer had the tips to the bastard wing-feathers and the immer secondaries white, and is probably either a female or a younger bird. My figure represents the species of the full size, and is drawn from a specimen in my own collection. vould &WeHart delet lth. Walter inp. CAMPEPHAGA STRENUA, Sci. Blue-grey Campephaga. Campephaga strenua, Schl. N. T. D. iv. p. 45.—Sclater, P. Z.S. 1873, p. 697.—Meyer, Sitz, Wien, Ixix. p. 10. Tus remarkable species was discovered by Baron von Rosenberg during his last voyage. ‘Two specimens were obtained—one in the island of Jobi, and the other in the interior of the northern peninsula of New Guinea. D’Albertis procured it in Atam; and Dr. Meyer shot altogether four specimens—three at Rubi, a place situated at the southern extremity of Geelvink Bay, and one on the Arfak mountains. These are apparently all the specimens at present in Europe; I am not aware of any other individuals existing in any collection. Professor Schlegel makes the following observations on the species:—‘tThe new species which we introduce under the name of Campephaga strenua is remarkable for its large size and excessively robust bill ; it is, moreover, very easily recognized by its entirely blue-grey colour, broken only by the black lores, nasal plumes, fore part of chin, primaries, and tail-feathers, as well as by the clear isabelline rufous which pervades the axillaries and lower wing-coverts, with the exception of the greater series, which are white. It is to be remarked, moreover, that the median wing-coverts have the inner web black, whilst the black of the basal part of the primaries passes partially into whitish. Bill and feet black; iris blackish brown. Total length 6’6", tail 510", bill from front 15”, breadth of bill at forehead 8", tarsus 13”, middle toe 10.” ) Dr. Meyer obtained the female, which, he says, differs from the male in the absence of black on the wings and chin, these parts bemg bluish grey in the females like the rest of the body. A hen bird which he obtained in the Arfak mountains had the head and under surface of body brighter blue than the other examples obtained at Rubi. My Plate represents the bird of the natural size, and was drawn from a specimen lent me by Signor d Albertis. eo ee ee ve an bee y i 2 an ae ay ae ee See eee = gk: Fy rial, if Seahy i & és a, crt one nen wens? @ Re 2 bs . ‘ = irae hate eae: : ; ii as ons oa tr elle VALOR ete -¢7 ee et Pe os ede ae “ey ag: a =, ae eee) Ee oe ee io ere nS ee Piet So a Toa - at te lana 9 Fie ee ee ee ed —— GRAUCALUS PUSILILUS , Ramsay. Matern Bros. ump. W Hart del et. ith. GRA UCALUS PUSILLUS, Ramsay. Ramsay's Cuckoo-Shrike. | Graucalus, sp. nov., Ramsay, Nature, 1879, p. 125. Graucalus pusillus, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, iv. p. 71 (1879).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. Xv. p. 35 (1879).—Id. Ibis, 1880, p. 128.—Id. Orn. Papuasia, etc. ii. p. 140 (1881). Graucalus dussumieri (?), Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. 8. W. iv. p. 71 (1879). Graucalus salamonis, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. 8. W. iv. p. 314 (1879). Tuts species is a small island race of Graucalus avillaris, the males of the two species being almost identical in colour. In the present bird, which comes from the Solomon Islands, the colour is a clearer slaty blue in both sexes and the under wing-coverts and axillaries are barred with black and white, and the bars are narrower. | In the females of G. pusillus the thighs are uniform blue-grey, whereas in G. aavilaris they are barred with black and white like the rest of the under surface. As far as is known at present, this Cuckoo-Shrike is found only in Guadalcanar, where it was discovered by Mr. Cockerell. The following descriptions have been drawn up from the typical specimens :— Adult male. General colour above clear blue-grey ; wing-coverts like the back; large outer feather of bastard wing black ; primary-coverts and quills black, externally blue-grey, more hoary on the outer webs of the primaries ; tail-feathers black, the centre feathers ashy for two thirds of their length on the inner web, not quite so extended on the outer web, the outermost feather dull ashy at the tip; head clear blue-grey like the back ; a narrow frontal line and lores black, occupying a distinct space in front of the eye and extending below the latter, as well as the upper and under edge of the eyelid; sides of face, ear-coverts, cheeks, and entire under surface of body clear blue-grey, with a tiny spot of black at the base of the chin and base of cheeks ; under tail-coverts darker grey, with blackish shaft-stripes; axillaries barred, ashy grey on the inner web and on the base of the outer, the latter otherwise barred with black and ashy whitish ; under wing-coverts slaty blue, with less distinct bars of black and ashy whitish ; quills ashy blackish below, greyer on the inner web especially near the base, the inner web edged with white. Total length 9 inches, culmen 0:7, wing 4:95, tail 4:2, tarsus 0°8. Adult female. Differs from the male in having the base of the forehead greyish black instead of deep black, the loral patch being also ashy blackish ; the throat and chest are uniform blue-grey, but the rest of the under surface is barred with black and ashy white on a blue-grey ground; on each side of the lower back a conspicuous patch of silky white; thighs uniform blue-grey. ‘Total length 8°5 inches, culmen 0°65, wing 4°95, tail 3:1, tarsus 0°8. The Plate represents the male and female birds of the natural size, the figures being drawn from the type specimens which Mr. Ramsay has kindly lent to us. [R. B. §.] GRAUCALUS Walter wnp. WHart del. et lth GRAUCALUS AXILLARIS, Saivaa. Bruijn’s Cuckoo Shrike. Graucalus axillaris, Salvad., Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, vii. p. 925 (1875).—Sharpe, Mittheil. Zool, Mus. Dresden, i. p. 366 (1878).--Id. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iv. p. 27 (1879). THERE is not much to record respecting this interesting species of Cuckoo Shrike, which, at the time we write, has been too recently discovered for us to know any thing of its habits and economy. Although the male is to all appearance uniform in coloration, it has the axillaries and under wing- coverts barred with black and white; and this at once distinguishes it from any of the allied species of Graucalus. The female is quite different, and belongs to the section of G. lineatus and G. maforensis. Originally discovered by Mr. Bruijn at Mansema in the Arfak Mountains, it has lately been sent by Mr. Goldie from the Taburi district, at the back of the Astrolabe range, in South-eastern New Guinea. He gives the native name as Shorara. | The following descriptions, taken from the typical specimens, are reproduced from Mr. Sharpe’s Catalogue of Birds :— | ‘¢ Adult male. General colour above slaty grey, with a cast of lighter and more bluish grey; lesser wing- coverts like the back, the median and greater series rather darker than the back; quills black, externally edged with dark slaty grey; the secondaries outwardly entirely dark grey like the greater wing-coverts ; tail black, with a slight ashy shade on the centre feathers ; a narrow frontal line, lores, and feathers in front of the eye black ; ear-coverts darker grey than the head; under surface of body slaty grey, the under wing- coverts and axillaries barred across with white; quills ashy-black below, grey on the inner web, which is edged internally with white. Total length 8:7 inches, culmen 0°75, wing 5:4, tail 4°4, tarsus 0°85 (Mus. Civ. Genov.). “* Adult female. Differs from the male in having the throat and fore neck alone slaty grey; the rest of the under surface barred with black and white, the black bars always the broadest, but especially so on the sides of the body and on the under tail-coverts. The general tone of the grey upper surface is darker, the quills being blackish and the secondaries narrowly edged with white like the primaries. Total length 9 inches, culmen 0:8, wing 5°65, tail 4°4, tarsus 0°85 (Mus. Civ. Genov.). “Young male. Like the old female, but with some of the uniform grey breast-feathers of the adult male plumage appearing below ; upper tail-coverts tipped with white, of which there are scarcely any traces in the adult female. Wing 5:4 inches; tail black, the middle feathers dark slaty grey with a black tip (Aus. Civ. Genov.).” . The pair of birds represented in the accompanying illustration are drawn from specimens collected by Mr. Goldie in South-eastern New Guinea, and now form part of the national collection. The birds are shown of about the size of life. [R. B. S.] ee if? el ae E “inh | oe ee ee “jo d® 2h hs Bi) = aes eee mui ssn . | | ote ey ak a € Re? a aided | “te: _* ‘rr 4 wt Bin r ou ies a ‘7 ‘a ~~ fe oe i Figs shee 4 7 ‘- we a vee — apts “4 Qank ot hata Peat Dig! “el i al i 2 - Me wha aa : ' Cale na © toe pe “3 y La . a Fea (Pe : H 4 es - i - ‘ + , F . : ; : F ) wy (eal Yona ee | : aul Ade Se : * ea 4 a “ ~+ a * > i) sa! ae - Mi iu, ja ee ees cir ee omy ® ask 0 ipa a rane ei 8 LY ie hint : — z ; Loe ; Fs » 2 a y e a i. ¥ t rh Gaggia ae fei aghote aid Te ile " ‘ i | 24 Paar Peas seven ew . "gy oo BD) ae UE aie Gaerne il An ni f pg oe ete ou stp. tent” Ol ee he See et Se — a ingles heen 7 ie ¥ 5 " if - bi! 7 At 7 7 a9 atk ea pe ree oe th ts Soe he oe a ary yt w es ) . I Bs ee cM bm Oe ah igo ay fi ahh di Xabe2 egg wiytwerta ont Aerie hale ST ss a. Cire alm ea bee gendt 1 RS tion See . : i ian, aaa a << ee ty hal ill ee alee wie - Cage be clas Rr OP ee a mer oe ion te ee ete a eds - dah Sole ida aa og ic own ian tout ection ee eae ieee ee ’ i Hf adi re at's Any dAeunte i ee De aed Wee ae Ete sali op ier e | atel wii: © 6 a ‘sak ee, ae a sith ens te eee Sates RAK A . pt? “ Gieuqnd Se ae Tey weed Pitareae : sd eery She 4df ts Sg Meer Tete et ee Wigs Sha at 0 Stine a= 7 "a2 ol Ste ot ie ai ‘eat al” aia se oe a arta og cea | < : 7 F ; a : a : J ay! iz ca ee . *, wa) Oh el 2h Se eee ae nae bitayh Cant iad ™ a? 7 =a ” 5 S ~~) N DN 4 LA O! , VLA \ R A x D) U A ia Ae Gl LAUC 7; Lap Kiki TtdlieeWEargdel tly GRAUCALUS MAFORENSIS. Mafoor Island Cuckoo-Shrike. Campephaga maforensis, Meyer, Sitz. Akad. Wien, lxix. p. 386 (1874). Graucalus maforensis, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genoy. vii. p. 927 (1875).—Sharpe, Mitth. zool. Mus. Dresden, i. p. 365, pl. xxx. (1878).—Id. Brit. Mus. Cat. B. iv. p. 41 (1879).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. xv. p. 35 (1879).—Id. Orn. della Papuasia &c. p. 141 (1881 . Tuts species was discovered by Dr. Meyer in the island of Mafoor in the Bay of Geelvink, and belongs to that section of the genus Graucalus which contains G. dineatus of Australia and G. axillaris from Mount Arfak. Mr. Sharpe states that the female is so like that of G. axillaris that it can scarcely be separated, but the male bird is very different, and is distinguished by having the breast and abdomen black, crossed by very narrow wavy lines of white, whereas in G. avillaris the male is perfectly uniform below. Comparing G. maforensis with G. lineatus of Australia, Count Salvadori says that the colour is of amore intense ashy blue, and the transverse striations on the abdomen are much less strongly defined. The following descriptions of the type specimens are given by Mr. Sharpe in his ‘ Catalogue of Birds :’— «Adult male. Above light bluish grey, the wing-coverts like the back ; bastard-wing plumes black, narrowly edged with white ; primary-coverts black on the inner webs, externally grey, rather lighter on the extreme margin; quills black, the primaries with a narrow edging of hoary grey, the secondaries like the back, blackish on the inner web; tail-feathers entirely black (only three feathers remaining); sides of face a little darker bluish grey than the head ; a narrow frontal line, lores, feathers in front of the eyes and at base of cheeks black ; throat and chest bluish grey; breast and remainder of under surface of body black, crossed with very fine narrow lines of greyish white; thighs bluish grey; under wing-coverts and axillaries black, barred with white like the breast, but the bars much broader ; quills ashy grey below, narrowly edged with white along the inner web; ‘iris yellow’ (Meyer). Total length 8°8 inches, culmen 0°75, wing 4:7, tail 3°8, tarsus 0°8. «* Adult female. Differs from the male in having much broader white cross bars on the under surface, the black ones, however, being broader than the white ones; above, the colour is darker bluish grey than in the male, the black at the base of the forehead being more dusky and not so velvety black ; the secondaries as well as the primaries have a narrow and nearly obsolete hoary grey edging, and are much more broadly margined with white on the inner web below; tail black, the outer feathers with a narrow white tip, the centre feathers dark grey for the greater part of their extent, black at the tips. ‘Total length 8:8 inches, culmen 0°75, wing 4°85, tail 4, tarsus 0-8.” The male and female birds depicted in the Plate have been drawn from the typical examples, which were kindly lent to me by Dr. Meyer for the purpose. . [R. B. 8.] “se + 7 ~ feta is $ | Vena 7F ay An # EDOLUSOMA MONTANUM. | SCold b& Whar b de et ef , Wiuktez Lup. EDOLIISOMA MONTANUM. Mount Arfak Cuckoo-Shrike. Campephaga montana, Meyer, Sitzb. k. Ak. Wiss. zu Wien, lxix. p. 386 (1874). Edoliisoma montanum, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. vii. p. 927 (1875).—Sharpe, Mitth. zool. Mus. Dresd. i. pp. 367, 369 (1878).—Id. Cat. B. iv. p. 46 (1879).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. xv. p. 35, n. 19 (1879).—Id. Orn. Papuasia &e. ii. p. 147 (1881). Tuts species was discovered in the Arfak Mountains by Dr. Meyer, and has since been met with in the same locality by Dr. Beccari and Mr. Bruijn’s hunters. It is one of the finest members of the genus Hdolkisoma, the female being more brightly coloured than is usual in this genus, and not being barred below as so many of the hen birds are. The male bird has the upper surface grey, and the lower parts entirely black ; and the female is recognized by its perfectly black tail from all the other species of Edoliisoma with which it might be confounded. The following description of the species is taken from Mr. Bowdler Sharpe’s Catalogue :— ‘© Adult male. General colour above blue-grey, including the wing-coverts ; greater coverts black, edged with grey; bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills black, with a steel-green gloss on the margin, the inner secondaries broadly edged with grey; tail-feathers black, glossed with steel-green on the margins; a narrow frontal line, lores, feathers round the eye, sides of face, sides of neck, and entire under surface of body glossy black, the thighs ashy grey; under wing-coverts black; greater series of under wing-coverts and quills, below ashy grey. Total length 9-5 inches, culmen 0:8, wing 5:4, tail 4:3, tarsus 1. “« Adult female. Differs from the male in being of a lighter blue-grey both above and Jdelow; only the lores, feathers at base of forehead and im front of the eye, front half of eyelid, a spot at base of lower mandible, and chin black. Total length 9°5 inches, culmen 0°75, wing 5:05, tail 4:1, tarsus 1. ‘“« The typical specimens lent to me by Dr. A. B. Meyer measure, in inches, as follows :— Total length. Culmen. Wing. Tail. Tarsus. a. 3. Arfak Mountains. . . . . . 92 0°75 53 43 ] in © 53 ¥ boa, ae Memeo) 0-8 50 4°] ] ‘The female is not fully adult, and has the inner secondaries and the outer tail-feathers tipped with white ; the under tail-coverts are rufous, barred with dark slaty-grey, from which it may be inferred that the young bird is entirely marked in this manner on the under surface.” The figures in the Plate represent a pair of birds of about the size of life. They are drawn from the typical specimens kindly lent to me by Dr. Meyer. [R. B. S.J " : ; ; E a a W. Hart del et ith. iD: DOLITSOMA POLIOPRSE, Sharpe. Minter Bros. tmp. ee EDOLIISOMA POLIOPSE, Sharpe. Grey-faced Cuckoo-Shrike. Edoliisoma poliopsa (err. typ.), Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc., Zool. xvi. pp. 318, 433 (1882). Tue original specimens of this Cuckoo-Shrike were sent by Mr. Goldie from the Morocco district in the Astrolabe Mountains, S.E. New Guinea, where its native name is said to be ‘“ Nagioa.” Mr. Forbes has found it in the Sogeri district of the same range of mountains. Two specimens were sent by Mr. (oldie, both of them evidently females; but notwithstanding this fact, we described the species as new without any hesitation. Many of the species of the genus Edoltisoma can scarcely be told apart, if the males only are examined, whereas the females are very distinct and easily recognizable. Thus it was that we felt certain that the male, when discovered, would be found scarcely to differ from the same sex of Z. schisticeps, but there would be no mistake about the females; and now that Mr. Forbes has discovered the male there can be no doubt on the point. The validity of the species rests therefore on the female bird, which may be distinguished from the hen of Z. sehisticeps by the slaty-grey colour of the chin, ear-coverts, and fore part of the cheeks. The following is a description of both sexes :— Adult male. General colour above slaty grey; lesser wing-coverts like the back; median and greater coverts clearer and more French-grey; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills black, the secondaries externally French-grey like the greater wing-coverts ; upper tail-coverts like the back; centre tail-feathers grey, with a broad black band at the end; the remainder black, with a broad grey tip at the outer ones ; crown of head, hind neck, and mantle a shade darker slaty grey than the lower back and rump; lores and nasal plumes black ; feathers round eye, ear-coverts, and cheeks blackish, with a slight greyish shade; chin blackish ; throat and under surface of body leaden grey, clearer and more slaty grey on the lower breast and abdomen, as well as on the sides of body and flanks; thighs and under tail-coverts, under wing-coverts and axillaries pale slaty grey; quills below blackish; the inner webs ashy whitish towards their bases. Total length 8 inches, culmen 0°75, wing 4:4, tail 3-25, tarsus 0°9. Adult female. Different from the male. General colour above dark chestnut, more dusky on the mantle and upper back, where the feathers are obscurely dark-shafted ; the scapulars like the mantle; the lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts lighter and more maroon-brown ; two centre tail-feathers chestnut, with a subterminal mark of blackish ; remainder of tail-feathers black, tipped with chestnut, increasing in extent towards the outermost, which is also chestnut along the outer web; wing-coverts chestnut; bastard-wing and primary-coverts black; quills black, externally chestnut, broader on the secondaries, the innermost of which are entirely chestnut ; entire head and nape, as well as the side of the face and ear-coverts, slaty grey, blackish on the lores and on extreme base of forehead and below the eye; the ear-coverts also blackish ; fore part of cheeks and chin ashy grey; hinder cheeks and throat chestnut, barred with grey; remainder of under surface rich chestuut, becoming paler towards the flanks and under tail-coverts ; under wing-coverts like the breast, as also the axillaries; quills black below, rufous along the inner web. ‘Total length 6°8 inches, culmen 0°8, wing 4:2, tail 3°4, tarsus 0°85. The Plate represents both sexes of the size of life, the figures being drawn from specimens procured by Mr. H. O. Forbes in the Astrolabe range. [R. B. 8.] il isi) lade. a = TA, 3 ] Z4 7 trap. Ha LALAGE MQEST A, Sciater. Black-browed Caterpillar-catcher. Lalage mesta, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1883, p. 55. Tux present species is one of the novelties discovered by Mr. H. O. Forbes during his expedition to Timor laut. It is intermediate in coloration between Lalage timoriensis of Timor, and LZ. pacifica and L. terat, having the tail of the first-named bird, but the wing-coverts patterned as in the last-named species : from both of these, however, it may be distinguished by its pure white rump-band, and by the absence of a white eyebrow. From L. timoriensis it may be told by the lesser wing-coverts being greenish-black like the back; but, like that species, it has only two of the outer tail-feathers tipped with white. In L. t:moriensis, also, there is a very distinct superciliary streak of white, whereas in the present bird the white is confined to a rather broad streak above the lores. The following is a description of the typical specimens, which have been kindly lent to me by my friend Dr. Sclater. They will be ultimately deposited in the British Museum. Adult male. General colour above glossy greenish black, the feathers of the lower back with ashy grey bases; rump white; the upper tail-coverts steel-black, tipped with white; wing-coverts like the back, the median and greater series with white spots at the tip, forming a double wing-bar, the white endings to the median series being much the broadest ; bastard wing and primary-coverts uniform black ; quills black, the secondaries edged with white on the outer web, this white, however, not extending to the base of the feathers, though it reaches to the tip of the outer web of the inner secondaries ; tail-feathers black with a steely gloss on the margins, the two outer feathers with broad white ends, feathers in front of the eye black, surmounted by a white loral streak from the base of the nostrils to above the fore part of the eye; upper and lower margin of eyelid white; ear-coverts white, black on the upper margin; cheeks, sides of the neck, and entire under surface of the body, as well as the thighs, under tail-coverts, under wing-coverts and axillaries, pure white; quills black below, but with about half of the inner web white, forming a large white patch on the under surface of the quills. Total length 7 inches, culmen 0-55, wing 3°89, tail 3:0, tarsus 0-9. The bird described is apparently an adult male. A female sent by Mr. Forbes differs in being less glossy black above, and in having the ramp-band more ashy white, the blackish subterminal markings, which are concealed in the male, being ashy and more conspicuous in the female. The throat and chest are slightly tinged with buff, and the lower series of under wing-coverts are white-with blackish tips. These last two characters may be the remains of immaturity. Total length 7 inches, culmen 0°55, wing 3:7, tail 3:0, tarsus 0:95. The figures in the Plate represent a pair of birds of the natural size. [R. B. S.J MICRECA ASSIMIULIS. Gould. Let cb lity ! z Mater Lrp. S Could & W Har MICRQGECA ASSIMILIS, Gowda. Western Micreeca. Micreca assimils, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1840, p. 172.—Id. B. Austr. Intr. p. xl (1848).—Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 321 (1850).—Reichenbach, Veg. Neuholl. p. 287 (1850).—Cab. Mus. Hein. Th. i. p. 52 (1850). —Gould, Handbook B. Austr. i. p. 260 (1856).—Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales, ii. part 2, p. 182 (1878).—Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iv. p. 124 (1879). Myiagra assimilis, Gray, Gen. of Birds, i. p. 261. Muscicapa assimilts, Gray, Hand-list of Birds, i. p. 324, no. 4856 (1869). Tue genus Miecreca was instituted by me in 1840 for the reception of the present bird and the JZ. fascinans of Latham, also an Australian species. Since that time only two or three species have been discovered in the Papuan Islands and North-eastern Australia; so that in Micrwca we have a thoroughly Australian genus of Flycatchers, representing the true Flycatchers of Europe and Asia. It may be noticed that the two best-known Australian species, Jcreca fascinans and M. assimilis, in their sober brown coloration are not unlike the Common Flycatcher (Butals erisola) of England. The present species very closely resembles J. fascinans of New South Wales, of which it is the represen- tative in Western Australia; but it is smaller, and, instead of having the outer tail-feathers pure white, has only the tip of the inner web and the outer edge of the external tail-feather white. The species is described in full by Mr. Sharpe, whose words I here transcribe :— “Adult male. General colour above earthy brown, the upper tail-coverts darker sepia-brown ; wing-coverts brown; quills brown, narrowly edged with lighter brown, the secondaries with dull white; four centre tail- feathers dark brown, the next two on each side tipped with white on the inner web, the white tip gradually increasing in size towards the outermost, which has also the outer web white; a narrow frontal line of dull white drawn backwards over the fore part of the eye; in front of the eye a dusky spot; ear-coverts brown with a slight dash of rufous; cheeks, throat, abdomen and under tail-coverts white, the chest slightly shaded with light brown, the sides of the body more distinctly light earthy brown; axillaries pale rusty brown ; under wing-coverts whity brown, with dusky bases; bill and feet bluish brown; iris reddish brown. Total length 4°5 inches, culmen 0°45, wing 3°35, tail 2°25, tarsus 0°55.” The female is similar to the male. Mr. Sharpe also notices a specimen from North-western Australia, collected by Mr. Elsey, in which there are small white spots at the tips of the primary-coverts. These he believes to be a sign of immaturity. All the specimens which have as yet come under my notice have been from Western Australia; but Mr. Ramsay also gives the Gulf of Carpentaria as a habitat for the species. I have never seen it from anywhere but Western Australia. “The figures in the Plate represent this species of the natural size, and are drawn from skins in my own collection. There is no difference in the sexes. onl , “ ‘ _ a ee ee i : i i ce i ; 7 ee ns 5 7 oat a ‘iy ‘ci oe PPL a GERYGONE DORSALIS, Sclater. Walter Imp. W. Hart del. et lith. GERYGONE DORSALIS, Seiater. Rufous-backed Gerygone. Gerygone dorsalis, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1883, p. 199. Tuis is one of the most distinct species of the genus Gerygone. The rufous colour of the back, so markedly in contrast with the grey head, is a character approached by none of the other species of the genus. Mr. Forbes, who discovered this new bird, sent a large series from Moloe Island in the Tenimber grou p:— . The following is a description of the typical specimen kindly lent to me by Dr. Sclater :— Adult male. General colour rufous or bay; the lesser and median wing-coverts like the back ; greater series, bastard wing, and primary-coverts, as well as the quills, dusky brown, edged with rufous like the back ; tail-feathers light brown, margined with rufous, all but the centre feathers with a blackish shade before the tips, which are pale brown ; near the end of the inner webs a white spot, which increases in extent towards the outermost feather; head dull ashy brown, contrasting with the back; a spot of dusky white on the lores ; ear-coverts light ashy brown as well as the sides of the neck ; feathers below the eye, cheeks, and under surface of body white; the sides of the breast and flanks light rufous or bay ; thighs also light rufous ; under tail-coverts buffy whitish ; under wing-coverts and axillaries yellowish white ; quills dusky below, yellowish white along the inner web ; ‘ bill, legs, and feet black ; iris black” (HZ. O. Forbes). Total length 4 inches, culmen 0°55, wing 2°1, tail 1:5, tarsus 0°8. Adult female. Resembling the male in colour, but with the head a trifle duller. Wing 2°15 inches, tarsus 0°85. The Plate represents a male and female of this species, of the natural size. [R. B. 8.] tee Te Pp -Sahe A cre Flee Ps cr ¥ © a ih Metis. aie 28 2H ee De W. Hort del et tél. PSEUDOGERYGONE NOTATA.’ Alintere Bros. tmp. a PSEUDOGERYGONE NOTATA. White-spotted Flycatcher. Gerygone chrysogaster, pt., Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, p. 434. Gerygone neglecta, pt., Wallace, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1865, p. 475.—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genoy. vii. p. 957 (1875). Gerygone notata, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. xii. p. 344 (1878), xiv. p. 504 (1879).—Id. Orn. Papuasia e delle Molucche, ii. p. 99 (1881). Pseudogerygone notata, Sharpe, Notes from the Leyden Museum, i. p. 29 (1878).—Id. Cat. Birds in Brit. Mus. iv. p. 227 (1879). Leptotodus tenuis, Meyer in Madardasz, Zeitschr. ges. Orn. ii. p. 197, pl. ix. fig. 2 (1884). Tue members of the genus Pseudogerygone have been separated by us from true Gerygone on account of the different proportions of the quills, the second primary being equal to the secondaries in the former, while it is considerably longer than the secondaries in the genus Gerygone. Whether these differences are sufficient to separate the two genera is a matter for ornithologists to consider; but there can be no question as to the convenience of dividing the great genus Gerygone into two sections, when we have as good characters for separation as those mentioned above. The type of the present species was discovered by Dr. Beccari on the river Wa Samson, in North- western New Guinea, and was described by Count Salvadori. A specimen had been collected by Mr. A. R. Wallace in the island of Mysol many years previously, but had been referred either to G. chrysogaster or G. neglecta by previous writers. ‘The Leyden Museum contains specimens from Salwati, obtained by Dr. Bernstein ; and quite recently Dr. A. B. Meyer has received a specimen from Amberbaki in North- western New Guinea, which he described as belonging to a new genus and species. He very kindly sent us the type specimen for examination, and we found by comparison that it was identical with the specimens of Pseudogerygone notata in the British Museum. The following is a copy of the description given by us in the British Museum Catalogue of Birds :-— “General colour above dark greenish olive, rather more rufescent on the upper tail-coverts ; least wing- coverts like the back; greater and median wing-coverts dark brown, edged and tipped with yellow; quills dark brown, externally edged with the same olive as the back; tail-feathers brown, with olive margins ; lores buffy whitish ; ear-coverts olive, with lighter shaft-streaks ; throat and breast white, slightly tinged with yellow ; the abdomen, thighs, and under tail-coverts olive-yellow; under wing-coverts white, as also the axillaries, washed with yellow, especially on the edge of the wing; quills dusky brown below, buffy white along the inner edge of the quills. Total length 4:2 inches, culmen 0°45, wing 1-95, tail 1-55, tarsus 0-6.” The figures in the Plate are drawn from the type specimen of Leptotodus tenuis, which was kindly lent to us by Dr. Meyer. They represent an adult bird in two positions. [R. B. 8.] er 7 * _ m4 ii “" Ly . Fs 7 i Ae Pa cee 1. 5 = —. == ae 7 x npn eae Pe ee ees | a i > ey a eer ae i) He ane siete ae. we - ss r aa’ 7 a Sena cee ee a! oat 43 ofa i + ; 7 rl) ee aaa “d i na mv ~ a 7 5 pe oe Lo of ° + = oP : : : 7 ie ie ' i? a isk Pati | . H - © A ‘i F ‘ i in : 2 eee Mies |e Bel Seine la : Ae ge yee ey eat eee J eT nae ms tae : fe rae 2a he a 7 as es sl 1g ly a a ae Sy ae ee ee Pe eo = , es 56] u : a : oe a ob. er ey od 7 i - Fl 7 ie 4 Py ~ - = u mS ak 2 * col fi F . et ct a J 4 oS ate 7 Z t ni +. ae € "T & Cm oe Ob Awa ee a i s me ret ee) al) vb 7 . a a \ ins, A. © a? , ae : be _ | ee + : : a = % 7 : ae ee ee ee oe : a its , ae = - 7 , ' : 1 Se ae saa 7 © ; . z y - ¥ a Ly: Md it lait) = a? > oe ay i fe a ¢ i. a : en 7 rr - - z ot at ae : a A * i r 7 ie | 7 ; wa: cm a2 ta a ie ii e. C a *% c ee? . . Jeet awe =? Sany ae aT “ ai is Sp Eee) me Ee 5a AA id Pale J et. 2 = 7 s r *e J, “ i * a 4 4 i - , f = " - 3. al ~ -- P : i a a é ae 7 Te mt , z = - “3 7 ce a . : - “le yar i 7 ' = 7 2 - me) - ? . fl P| ; a i A — 7 os : me 4 i z ’ RE MPa nee Soba ee Pee ce se f y er pees is « ts ' i Ses - - = a . Uh ewes sos “ind wl oot ae 2 Rnd a oe Fee ye as ss ; ce aa en ee oe ee yeas we eh Rar ete er) iv, . * F a : i 7 ; i oa =a > ~lipe 1 5 =. o ° ie ck -_ : “ite < cle a 5 ' 7 : 4 : oan 7” ane eer Pe + Peete a) aery, 4 or ; S : ee ee ctr P = ; . wis J ee a F i i - 7. . 2 q rt “Pe 54 ba 7 ia é ol 3 > ¥ Lit * im 3 ; ot a ; “ ‘Sw ‘J as ‘ aoe és 4 i 7 rn -. — ar TT ye: ball a a a th Rl « * A + wt ‘ ' . “ “4 ‘ pat vag A aa Rae thks “rf a ee ee re i oy 2 a “iR= AY a ee Wile ‘ a 7 7 - : oon hee 7 a * 7 “inks ott hr a dena ae 2 5A * , e me o 3 a ; « a _ a es ee ee ee ee ci . : a ne * - “ a ee 7 7 a i Ta yy hae res $ 7 ‘7 e . 1a % a = 7 * a 2 © ’ S « - - = “— ~ ii. ties ae ¢ a fa.) a . bis cs = 8 . - ‘ * a f e r ra oi) nk & | i i ci m4 a ; : uh A i Pa i a * - ‘i Md = ™e 2 | a ~ ae = > : 7 fi + la ee ae > og CULM ae See a hae Peso, aS ae ee $ aa a ms + a : " es ee - : a 8 Fa eee ay ho a re f ‘ ° * ee pave, Se By Y etinn le i Fees Eun Sol talaats es ie - em - Z wr Ee, _ 7 H ‘ 4) + ee an. ee = . 1 - i] 4 = fia r oreo cae i € a ' 2S Tie Fs ons - e 7 Y ry 7 a 7 a : + ; ; 2 5 ett. = i << o a | . d F 7 is 7 aa eg : 3 ee oe } oe e, i fe My =P PEs fe 7 fo = Mee F) a ee es on a aoe tae UA ijee, Ge t — aes . al aA ’ - an fs es os, hie. i a RE " : +3 =i ie r 4 im et | ates < TL Ce ee ee eee eR ale on Pec ye se as -4 ‘ew 7 pe : : £ = aie yor 2 z a a ra W. Hart del et lith. PSEUDOGERYG ONT: CIEORY SO GAS TRA. Minterrn Bros. np. PSEUDOGERYGONE CHRYSOGASTRA. Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Gerygone chrysogaster, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858, pp. 171, 191.—Id. Cat. Mamm. ete. New Guinea, pp. 25, 56 (1859).—Rosenb. J. f. O. 1864, p. 122.—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 166 (1865).—Meyer, Sitz. k. Akad. Wien, lxx. p. 118 (1874).—Salvad. & D’Albert. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. vii. p. 820 (1875).—Salvad. tom. cit. p. 956 (1875).—Id. op. cit. ix. p. 26 (1876), xiv. p. 503 (1879).—Id. & D’Albert. t.c. p. 63 (1879).—Salvad. Orn. Papuasia e delle Molucche, i. p. 97 (1881). Acanthiza chrysogaster, Gray, Hand-list Birds, i. p. 219, no. 3131 (1869). Gerygone xanthogaster (lapsu), Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. vii. p. 958 (1875). Gerygone chrysogastra, Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc., Zool. xiii. p. 495 (1878). Pseudogerygone chrysogastra, Sharpe, Notes from the Leyden Mus. i. p. 29 (1878).—Id. Cat. Birds in Brit. Mus. iv. p. 226 (1879). Tse late Mr. George Robert Gray described the present species from the Aru Islands, where it was discovered by Mr. Wallace ; Mr. Gray also included specimens from Mysol and Waigiou, but the birds from the two last-named islands are really distinct species, and have been separated as P. notata, Salvad., and P. neglecta, Wallace. Besides the Aru Islands, where Dr. Beccari has also met with the species, it has been found in South- eastern New Guinea as well as in the Island of Jobi, in the Bay of Geelvink. Count Salvadori, however, notices some slight differences in the Jobi specimen, which he thinks may indicate a distinct species. The present bird is one of many Aru species which are also found to inhabit South-eastern New Guinea, and no differences can be detected between specimens from these two localities. D’Albertis met with it on the Fly River, and again at Mount Epa and Naiabui. Mr. H. O. Forbes has also recently sent a specimen from the Sogeri district, in the Astrolabe Mountains. Count Salvadori also believes that Gerygone inconspicua of Ramsay (Proc. Linn. Soc. N. 8. Wales, i. p. 116) is identical with the present species; and this seems likely enough, the only point in which the description disagrees with that of P..chrysogastra being in the presence of ‘an oblique blackish spot from in front to under the eyes across the gape.” Adult male. General colour olive-brown, the upper tail-coverts more rusty brown ; wing-coverts like the back, the greater series darker brown, narrowly edged with olive-brown like the back ; quills dark brown, externally edged with olive ; tail dark brown, edged with rusty brown like the upper tail-coverts; lores and eyelid dull white; ear-coverts and sides of face light ashy brown; cheeks, throat, and breast white, the remainder of the under surface sulphur-yellow, the thighs browner; under wing-coverts pale yellow, with white bases: ‘bill and feet dusky” (Wallace) ; ‘iris black” (D’Albertis): “ bill black; legs and feet faint purplish brown ; iris brown, with a ring of pale orange outside” (ZZ. O. Forbes). Total length 4-7 inches, culmen 0°45, wing 2:2, tail 1:8, tarsus 0°65. Adult female. Similar to the male in colour. ‘“ Bill black 5 feet reddish white ” (Wallace). Total length 4:2 inches, culmen 0°45, wing 2, tail 1-7, tarsus 0°65. The Plate represents an adult bird in two positions, and has been drawn from a specimen procured in the Astrolabe Mountains by Mr. H. O. Forbes. [R. B. 8.] W. Hart del et lth. PSEUDOGERYGONTE CINE REICERPS . Mintern Bros. imp. PSEUDOGERYGONE CINEREICEPS, Sharpe. Grey-headed Flycatcher. Pseudogerygone cinereiceps, Sharpe, Nature, 1886, p. 340. _Tuere is not much to say about this little Flycatcher, which belongs to an Australian group which have much the appearance of the Willow-Warblers of more northern latitudes. The present species was discovered by Mr. H. O. Forbes in the Sogeri district of the Astrolabe Mountains, at a height of 1750 feet above the sea. Its nearest ally appears to be P. flavilateralis of New Caledonia, which is yellow-sided like P. cinereiceps, but is a larger bird and has a great deal of white on the tail. The following description is taken from the typical specimen :— Adult female. General colour above yellowish green, rather more olive on the upper tail-coverts ; lesser and median coverts like the back; greater coverts, bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills dusky brown, externally edged with yellowish green, brighter on the margin of the quills, the innermost secondaries also washed with greenish ; tail-feathers ashy brown, edged with yellowish green, with a very distinct subterminal bar of black before the tip, which is ashy brown, with a tiny spot of white at the end of the inner web, scarcely visible ; crown of head ashy with a faint tinge of green; lores white, extending above the fore part of the eye; feathers round eye, ear-coverts, and cheeks ashy brown; throat and under surface of body white, the sides of the upper breast ashy brown; lower breast and abdomen purer white; sides of body and flanks pale sulphur-yellow ; thighs ashy brown; under tail-coverts white, washed slightly with yellow; under wing- coverts and axillaries white, edged with yellow ; quills below dusky, white along the inner edge: ‘ bill black ; legs and feet lavender ; iris rich lake” (4. O. Forbes). Total length 3°5 inches, culmen 0°4, wing 1:9, tail 1°25, tarsus 0°65. The Plate gives an illustration of an adult bird in two positions, drawn from the specimen described above. [R. B. S.J INS. LETERC aes ie iN i } nto i <3 N XU i ae HETEROMYIAS Meslter, rp. JG ould &W Hurt, del et beth: HETEROMYIAS CINEREIFRONS. Ashy-fronted Flycatcher, Pecilodryas ? cinereifrons, Ramsay, P. Z. S. 1875, p. 588.—Id. Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. ii. p. 182. Heteromyias cinereifrons, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iv. p. 239 (1879). Tuts interesting bird was described by Mr. E. Pierson Ramsay from a specimen shot at Dalrymple’s Gap, near Cardwell, Queensland, and was placed by him, with doubt, in the genus Pecilodryas, from which it has lately been removed by Mr. Sharpe, who has made it the type of a new genus, which he calls Heteromyias. It is allowed by the latter gentleman to stand very close to Pecilodryas, a genus instituted by myself in 1865, and of which the type is P. cerviniventris, figured by me in the ‘ Birds of Australia ;’ but the bill is differently shaped, being higher at the nostrils than it is broad; and this peculiarity allies it very closely to the genus Metabolus, whose single species, M. rugensis, is apparently confined to the Caroline Islands. Beyond these few remarks respecting the scientific history of the present species I am unable to add any thing, its habits and economy being at present entirely unknown. In fact, at the precise moment when I write, there exists yi g au p y P but a single complete specimen of the bird, viz. the type in the Australian Museum at Sydney, a full description of which, as given by Mr. Sharpe in his Catalogue, I transcribe :— “Adult. General colour above rusty brown, the head and nape dark ashy grey, shaded slightly with brown except on the forehead, which accordingly looks lighter grey ; over the eye a broad streak of light French grey, extending to the sides of the nape; feathers in front of the eye dusky greyish black ; round the eye a ring of feathers, blackish where it joins the loral spot before, and the ear-coverts behind; fore part of cheeks and feathers just below the eye white; ear-coverts rusty brown, blackish just under the eye; a chin- spot and feathers at base of lower mandible greyish black ; throat and centre of breast and abdomen white ; chest and fore neck, as well as the sides of the breast, light grey ; the sides of the body and under tail- coverts tawny buff; thighs grey; under wing-coverts white, the axillaries tipped with tawny; greater series dark ashy, forming a patch on the under wing-coverts ; quills ashy brown below, white at the base of both webs; upper wing-coverts ashy grey, the median and greater series dark brown slightly shaded with rusty brown; bastard wing externally ashy, internally dark brown; primary-coverts uniform dark brown; quills dark brown, paler towards the tips, edged externally with rusty brown, the inner secondaries entirely of the latter colour and resembling the back, all the quills but the latter white at base, forming a bar across the wing; upper tail-coverts rufous, the tail-feathers brown, washed on the edges with rusty brown, inclining to rufous near their bases, the outer feathers narrowly tipped with white on the inner web. Total length 6-3 inches, culmen 0°7, wing 3°85, tail 2°7, tarsus 1:2.” I have availed myself of Mr. Ramsay’s permission to figure the type of this species before its return to Sydney; and in the accompanying Plate I have given two illustrations of the bird (in two positions), both of the natural size. MONACHELLA MUELLERIANA. Walter, WHart del, & lith. ; Walter, ump MONACHELLA MUELLERIANA. Chat-like Flycatcher. Muscicapa mulleriana, Schlegel (nec Muscicapa mulleri, Temm.), Ned. Tijdschr. Dierk. iv. p. 40 (1871). Monachella saxicolina, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. vi. p. 63 (1874).—Beccari, ibid. vii. p. 709 (1875).— D’Albertis, Sydney Mail, 1877, p. 248.—Id. Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. x. p. 11 (1877).—Salvad. op. cit. x. p. 11 (note), p. 133 (1877).—D’ Alb. & Salvad. op. cit. xiv. p. 59 (1879).—Salvad. op. cit. p. 501 (1879).— Id. Orn. Papuasia &c. p. 83 (1881.) Monachella mulleriana, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. vi. p. 308 (1874, note).—Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iv. p. 240 (1879). | Micreca albofrontata, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. New S. Wales, iii. p. 304 (1879), iv. pp. 90, 98 (1879)—Salvad. Ibis, 1859, p. 323. I am sorry that I cannot follow my friend Count Salvadori in calling this bird Adonachella saxicolina (although his reasons are worthy of some consideration), as he has only preferred to use that name to avoid the confusion that might take place between Muscicapa muelleriana of Schlegel and Muscicapa muelleri of Temminck. I do not think, however, that there is really much chance of this confusion, as the latter bird is a Flycatcher belonging to the genus Erythromyias, and is an inhabitant of Sumatra and Borneo. Professor Schlegel’s name having been published three years before that of Count Salvadori, it has an undoubted claim to priority. In other respects the name of sawicolina is extremely well chosen, as indicating the habits of the bird; and Signor D’Albertis states that when he first saw the species on the torrents of the Arfak Mountains he really thought that it was a true Sazicola. Dr. Beccari also says that in the above-named locality he found the species abundant, but only in the streams near the sea. During his expediticn up the Fly river, D’Albertis met with the species along the banks, and relates how, when the water was low, it perched on small rocks at the side of the river, and was continually in motion flying after insects. Mr. Goldie also states that during his recent expedition to the Astrolabe Mountains he found the species, in company with Gallina bruijnii, flymg about creeks and hopping amongst the stones. As far as we know, the present bird is exclusively confined to New Guinea. A specimen was procured by Solomon Muller in Lobo Bay as long ago as 1828, though it does not seem to have been described till 1871. It also inhabits the Arfak Mountains, and has been met with at Karons by M. Laglaize. In the southern part of the island D’Albertis met with it on the Fly river; and Mr. Goldie procured it on the Goldie river inland from Port Moresby. He has more recently met with it in the Morocco district, at the back of the Astrolabe range of mountains in South-eastern New Guinea: here it is called Jada. The following description is taken from Mr. Sharpe’s ‘ Catalogue of Birds :’— ‘Adult male. General colour above light French grey, paler on the lower back, the rump and upper tail- coverts white; wings and tail dark brown; crown of head and nape dark brown, as also the feathers above the eye and the upper edge of the eyelid, the brown narrowing on the forehead to the base of the bill; lores and feathers over the front of the eye pure white; between the eye and the base of the bill a triangular patch of blackish feathers; sides of face and ear-coverts, as well as entire under surface of body, creamy white; under wing-coverts dark brown; ‘bill and feet black’ (D’déertis). Total length 5:5 inches, culmen 0:6, wing 3°8, tail 2°4, tarsus 0°65. *¢ Adult female. Similar to the male. Total length 5°3 inches, culmen 0-6, wing 3°55, tail 2°25, tarsus 0°65.” Count Salvadori says that the young bird has the head and the wing-coverts blackish brown spotted with white, the back dull whitish varied with dusky, and the tips of the tail-feathers white. The figures in the Plate represent a pair of birds of the size of life, and are drawn from a specimen collected by Mr Goldie, and now in the British Museum. [R. B. 8.] 7 te 55? to) ag ee x i ae oe a ie pet meee a eee wen Le ~ mp fe _ hare Hatt Segue ; hae . a Seow RE weeny eee ae (AS BIMACULATA. N y ii! i ! ULOD. ~y ) CEC ie Walter Imp. t lath. 2 W Hart del.c PQECILODRYAS BIMACULATA. Black-and-White Flycatcher. Myjiolestes ? bimaculata, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. vi. p. 84. Pachycephala? bimaculata, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. vii. p. 935 (1875), x. p. 142 (1877). Pecilodryas bimaculata, Sharpe, Notes Leyden Mus. i. p. 25 (1878).—Id. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. iv. p. 244 (1879). —Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. xiv. p. 502 (1879).—Id. Orn. Papuasia, etc. il. p. 85 (1882). Peecilodryas sylvia, Ramsay, Trans. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, vili. p. 5 (1883). Tue genus Pecilodryas consists of two groups, or sections, characterized by the colour of the abdomen; in one section the abdomen is white, in the other yellow. The white-bellied group may be further subdivided into those which have the throat white and those which havea black throat. The present species belongs to the latter section, which now contains three species—P. bimaculata, P. ethiops, and P. albinotata, the latter being distinguished by its bluish-grey upper surface. P. bimaculata and P. ethops have the upper surface black, with the rump and upper and under tail- coverts white; but they may easily be distinguished from each other, P. demaculata having the abdomen white, a long white patch on the sides of the fore neck and chest, and the inner wing-coverts black ; whereas in P. ethiops the abdomen is black, the inner wing-coverts are white, forming a shoulder-patch, and there is no white on the sides of the fore neck. The present species was discovered in north-western New Guinea by Signor D’ tere and has been met with in the same locality by Dr. Beccari and M. Laglaize. It has been more recently obtained in the Astrolabe Mountains by Mr. Goldie, and a specimen from that range of mountains has been lent to me by Mr. Ramsay. The following description is copied from the ‘ British Museum Catalogue of Birds’ :— « Adult male. Above velvety black ; upper tail-coverts white, forming a band across ;_ wings and tail black ; sides of face, sides of neck, throat, and breast black, as well as the flanks and thighs ; ; abdomen, vent, and under tail-coverts white; on each side of the chest a broad line of pure white feathers running from the sides of the lower throat to the sides of the upper breast ; under wing-coverts black ; quills ashy black below. Total length 5:1 inches, culmen 0:6, wing 3:3, tail 2, tarsus 0°85. a : The figures in the Plate, which represent an adult bird of the natural size, are drawn from the Astrolabe- Mountain specimen lent to us by Mr. Ramsay, the type of his P. sy/ma. [R. B. S.J &e a i PC CILODRYAS ALBUFACIES, Sharpe. WHart deb. ct lith, . Wolter, urp PQICILODRYAS ALBIFACIES, Sharpe. Southern White-faced Flycatcher. Pecilodryas albifacies, Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc. (Zool.) vol. xvi. p. 318 (1882). AttuoueH closely allied to Pecilodryas leucops of North-western New Guinea, Mr. Goldie sent so many specimens from the Astrolabe Mountains, all of which presented the same characters, that there can be little doubt of the two species being distinct. The present bird is very similar to P. /eucops, but has the whole of the region round the eye white. In P. deucops the feathers in front of, below, and round the eye are black, leaving only a large loral spot of white, the facial appearance of P. albifacies being therefore quite different when the two birds are compared. The native name is said by Mr. Goldie to be “ Iddimattamatta;” he also states that the legs are yellow ; and this is all we know concerning the species beyond the fact that it was procured by the above-named collector in the Choqueri district at the back of the Astrolabe Mountains. The following description I copy from Mr. Sharpe’s essay on Mr. Goldie’s collection, published in the Linnean Society’s Journal. “* Adult. General colour above olive-green, with a concealed spot of silky white on the sides of the rump ; lesser and median wing-coverts like the back; primary-coverts and greater series dusky brown, edged with olive-green, the latter slightly tinged with rufous brown near the tips; quills dusky brown, externally olive, a little more yellow in colour than the back ; tail-feathers light brown, edged with olive, and having a small tip of ashy white at the end of the inner web; forehead blackish, extending over the eye; top of head dark slaty grey with blackish shaft-streaks to the feathers, which are also very faintly tinged with olive ; lores, feathers in front of the eye impinging on the forehead, feathers above and around the eye, as well as the space below the eye, pure white; ear-coverts slaty black; cheeks and chin white faintly washed with yellow ; throat and under surface of body bright yellow, the sides of the breast and flanks olive-greenish, a tinge of which is also in the centre of the breast; axillaries bright yellow; under wing- coverts white washed with yellow, with a dusky patch near the edge of the wing, which is also yellow ; quills ashy-brown below, whitish along the edge of the inner web. ‘Total length 4°5 inches, culmen 0°55, wing 2°85, tail 1-9, tarsus 0°8.” The figures in the Plate represent a pair of birds of the size of life, drawn from the typical specimens in the British Museum. [R. B. 8.] —_ 4 CHEODRYAS PLAC PQ Walier rp VA Juul & Hart, deb & tt PQLCTILODRYAS PLACENS. Yellow-banded Robin. Eopsaltria placens, Ramsay, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, iii. Pecilodryas flavicincta, Sharpe, Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist. 5th series, vol. ili. p. 313. Pecilodryas placens, Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc., Zool. xiv. p. 630. My first acquaintance with this brightly coloured Robin was in the month of March 1879, when five specimens were sent to this country by Mr. Kendal Broadbent, whose recent researches in South-eastern New Guinea have earned him a reputation as one of the best collectors in Australia. The collection has been described by Mr. Bowdler Sharpe in the ‘ Journal of the Linnean Society of London ;’ but a diagnosis of the present species was published by him in the April number of the ‘ Annals.’ Scarcely, however, had Mr. Sharpe’s description been published and become beyond recall, when a paper of Mr. Ramsay’s was received in this country, containing an account of the collections made in south-eastern New Guinea by Messrs. Goldie and Broadbent. This paper purports to have been read as long ago as the 30th of September 1878; and at any rate the description of Mr. Ramsay’s Hopsaltria placens must have been published long before that of Mr. Sharpe’s Pecilodryas flavicincta. The former geutleman remarks on the structural peculiarities of the species as showing a likeness to the genus Leucophantes of Sclater; and that genus, Mr. Sharpe has just shown us in the fourth volume of his ‘Catalogue of Birds,’ must be considered a synonym of my genus Pecilodryas. It is much to be regretted that the specimens sent by Mr. Broadbent were sold in London with an assurance that they had been sent direct to England, whereas it now turns out that a portion of the collection had also been sent to Sydney. Hence Mr. Sharpe and Mr. Ramsay were both led to describe the new species independently of each other; and thus a bird coming from such a recently explored field as S.E. New Guinea is introduced to the notice of ornithologists with two synonyms affixed to it in the twinkling of an eye. The skins forwarded to Sydney are marked by Mr. Broadbent as having come from the mountain- scrub of Goldie’s River. The following is a translation of Mr. Sharpe’s original description of P. flavicincta. Adult. General colour above yellowish green; the wing-coverts and quills dusky black, edged with the green colour of the back; tail-feathers dusky brown, externally edged with green, and having a small white tip; crown and nape dark ashy grey; chin, fore part of cheeks, and ear-coverts uniform with the head, the latter rather blacker; hinder part of cheeks, lower part of throat, and jugular region bright yellow, as also the sides of the head, forming a broad collar across the throat; fore neck and upper breast yellowish green; rest of under surface of body very bright yellow; under wing-coverts and axillaries white washed with bright yellow. Total length 5-3 inches, culmen 0-7, wing 3°65, tail 2-2, tarsus 0-9. . One of the figures in the accompanying Plate represents a specimen in my own collection, the other that in the British Museum. . yf TN PY ' JRYPOTAYMIS ROWLEYI. rt heh eb APY, HYPOTHYMIS ROWLEYI. Rowley’s Blue Flycatcher. Zeocephus rowleyi, Meyer, in Dawson Rowley’s Orn. Mise. iii. p. 163 (1878). Hypothymis rowleyi, Sharpe, Brit. Mus. Cat. Birds, iv. p. 278 (1879). Tue late Marquis of Tweeddale, in his well-known memoir on the Birds of Celebes, has certainly proved that, while it possesses a large number of peculiar forms, the island of Celebes is rather Indian in the affinities of its avifauna than Austro-Malayan ; but inasmuch as there is also a strong Moluccan element perceptible in the birds of the island, I propose still to include them in the present work, as the completion of my ‘Birds of Asia’ prevents me from figuring them in that work, to which perhaps they would more properly belong. If, as Dr. Meyer first suggested, the present species had turned out to be a true Zeocephus, it would have been a fact of the highest interest, as the latter genus is hitherto known only from the Philippine archipelago. It is scarcely less interesting, however, to find that it belongs to the strictly Indian genus Hypothymis, which thus gains a more extended range. I am glad that the specific name chosen by Dr. Meyer will perpetuate the memory of such an ardent naturalist and true patron of science as the late Mr. George Dawson Rowley, whose untimely death was a real loss to ornithology. Hypothymis rowleyi is nearly allied to H. puella from Celebes and the Sula Islands, and, like that species, has no black collar or nape-spot, and has no black on the forehead or chin. It differs from HZ. puella, however, in having the under surface of a light silvery blue, while the colour of the back is a greyish cobalt: in the Celebean species the upper and under surface are alike in their shade of blue. ‘The type specimen in the Dresden Museum still remains unique; it was procured by Dr. Meyer’s collectors in Great Sangi Island, the avifauna of which, as far as we know, is Celebean in its character. I take the accompanying description of the type from Mr. Sharpe’s ‘ Catalogue of Birds : ’— ‘‘ Adult. General colour above greyish cobalt-blue, more grey on the rump ; lesser and median wing-coverts like the back, the greater series and the quills light bluish grey, edged externally with the same greyish cobalt as the back of the quills, internally dusky blackish ; tail greyish blue, dusky blackish on the inner webs; sides of face more dusky greyish blue than the head; cheeks and under surface of body light silvery bluish, darker on the throat, and more dusky blue on the sides of the breast; under wing- coverts and axillaries like the breast. Total length 6°5 inches, culmen 0°65, wing 3°65, tail 3°6, tarsus 0°95.” I am indebted to Dr. Meyer for the loan of the type specimen, from which the accompanying life- size figures have been drawn. aoe ae ‘3 a Rags ogy is a ca * ' i es a ial + se = ae ao Py 1] a 7) 4 age se a ie | fo ; 7 a H ag TODOPSIS CYANOCEPHALA, (Q & G) SGould & We Harb, del ev titi : Walter frp. TODOPSIS CYANOCEPHALA, Q. & G. New-Guinea Todopsis. Todus cyanocephalus, Quoy et Gaimard, Voy. de |’Astrolabe, Zool. p. 227, pl. v. fig. 4. Philentoma cyanocephala, Jacq. et Pucher. Voy. Péle Sud, Zool. iti. p. 79, pl. xx. fig. 2. Tchitrea ? ceruleocephala, Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 260. Todopsis ceruleocephala, Bp. Comptes Rendus, xxxviii. p. 652. Todopsis cyanocephala, Gray, P. Z. S. 1858, p. 177; 1859, p. 156; 1861, p. 434.—Id. Cat. Mamm. & Birds New Guinea, p. 27.—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 168.—Sclater, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 696.—Meyer, Sitz. k. Akad. Wien, lxix. pp. 74, 78.—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. x. p. 148. Tchitrea cyanocephala, Gray, Hand-l. B. i. p. 334, no. 5031. One of the greatest difficulties I have had to contend with in the present work has been the utter want of any notes on the habits of most of the birds which it becomes my duty to figure. In the work on the Birds of Australia I had my own personal observations to record, the result of two years’ acquaintance with the birds in their native wilds; in the Birds of Asia there is generally a chance of finding some field- notes among the papers of Mr. Hume or some of his excellent coadjutors in India; while, of course, in writing the ‘ Birds of Great Britain,’ there was always a plethora of works to consult, which rendered it rather a matter of selection than of copying. In the present work, however, the case is quite different. Many of the species figured are from obscure or little-known localities, penetrated by European naturalists for the first time, where no leisure for studying the habits of the birds shot was obtainable; or the collection has been made by trained native hunters, whose only object is to shoot and preserve specimens, and from whom, of course, no information on the economy of the birds can be expected. The above remarks have been called forth by the fact that all my attempts to gain the slightest clue to the habits of Todopsis have failed, neither the early nor the recent travellers in New Guinea having given us any information on the subject. This is the more to be regretted, as I find myself at variance with several ornithologists as to the position of these little birds. From my knowledge of the Australian Wrens of the genus Malurus, I cannot help the conviction that, notwithstanding their long broadened bills and plentiful bristles, the members of the genus Todopsis are Warblers and not Flycatchers, and should be placed in the vicinity of the above-named genus. Count Salvadori arrived at this conclusion quite independently ; and J am glad to have his support in this opinion. On the other hand, Mr. Sharpe considers them to be Flycatchers, and regards this (the usual) view of their position as strictly correct. I am indebted to my friend Mr. Sharpe for the opportunity of seeing his MSS. on these birds, and for permission to copy the careful descriptions of this and the succeeding species from the fourth volume of the ‘Catalogue of Birds,’ as follows :— Adult male. Crown of head bright turquoise-blue, extending in a narrow band down the nape and hind neck; lores, and a narrow frontal band, feathers above the eye, sides of face and of neck, and hinder neck velvety black ; middle of the back and scapulars bright cobalt, as also the lesser wing-coverts; greater and primary coverts black, externally edged with purple; quills black, the secondaries externally bright cobalt, the innermost purplish blue ; entire back from below the mantle velvety black, with a slight purple gloss ; upper tail-coverts deep purple; tail-feathers black, dull blue on the outer webs, the two centre feathers entirely shaded blue; cheeks and entire under surface of body dark purple; under wing-coverts black. Total length 6 inches, culmen 0°65, wing 2°35, tail 2°4, tarsus 1-0. Signor D’Albertis describes the bill, feet, and iris as black. Adult female. General colour above chestnut-brown, the wing-coverts like the back; quills dark brown, externally edged with chestnut; crown of head bright turquoise-blue, extending in a band down the nape; a narrow frontal line, lores, sides of face, and sides of the hinder -crown purplish black; cheeks and throat dull cobalt; lower throat, breast, and centre of the body dull creamy white, the lower throat laterally cobalt; sides of body, flanks, thighs, and under tail-coverts chestnut, glossed with lilac on the sides of the upper breast ; under wing-coverts chestnut, the outer lower coverts buffy white, as also the edge of the wing ; lower surface of quills dark brown, edged with rufous along the inner web; tail ‘light indigo, waved across with dusky lines under certain lights, all the feathers rather broadly tipped with white. Total length 5:2 inches, culmen 0°65, wing 2:25, tail 2:35, tarsus 0:95. The present species seems to be confined to North-western New Guinea. Wallace procured it at Dorey, D’Albertis at Ramoi; and it was obtained in Salwatti by Mr. Bruijn’s hunters. The figures in the Plate represent a male and a female, of the natural size, drawn from specimens lent to me from the Dresden Museum under the direction of Dr. Meyer. . 2 if! JGould & Wert deb ev titly TODOPSIS BONAPARTIH, Gray. Walt lmp. TODOPSIS BONAPARTIL, Gray. Bonaparte’s Todopsis. Todopsis cyanocephala, Gray, P. Z.S. 1858, p. 177, pl. exxxiv (nec Quoy et Gaimard). Todopsis bonapartii, Gray, P. Z.S. 1859, p. 156, 1861, p. 434.—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 168.—Meyer, Sitz. k. Akad. Wien, lxix. pp. 78, 80.—Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc. xii. pp. 316, 498. Todopsis, sp., Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic, Genov. ix. p. 25. Tchitrea bonapartu, Gray, Hand-l. B. i. p. 334, no. 5032. Tue present species very closely resembles the preceding one, and was mistaken for it at first by the late Mr. George Robert Gray in 1858. In the course of the following year, however, the receipt of the true Todopsis cyanocephala from New Guinea showed him that the species from the Aru Islands was a different one; and he named it thereupon after Prince Bonaparte, the original proposer of the genus. Since that date very little information has been added to our knowledge of the Aru bird, until in 1876 it was discovered on the mainland of South-eastern New Guinea by the late Dr. James, who found it there, about eight miles east of Yule Island, ‘‘ inhabiting clumps of trees and shrubs in the midst of scrub.” This solitary note is, I believe, all that has ever been published respecting the habits of any species of Todopsis. Signor D’Albertis met with it in the same part of New Guinea, at Naiabui. Count Salvadori, in recording the latter specimen, thought that the bird from South-eastern New Guinea might be 7. mysoriensis of Meyer —a bird which certainly very much resembles 7. donapartii, but differs (so Mr. Sharpe tells me) in having the upper back black and only the mantle ultramarine, whereas the latter colour is more extended in 7. bonapartv, occupying both the mantle and upper back. The following descriptions are from Mr. Sharpe’s ‘ Catalogue of Birds :’-— Adult male. Crown of head bright cobalt of an enamelled texture, running in a narrower line down the nape; a narrow frontal line, lores, feathers above and below the eye, cheeks, ear-coverts, sides of neck and hinder neck, the latter washed with purple, mantle, scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts purplish cobalt ; the greater series of coverts and the inner secondaries black, externally edged with purple; primaries black, with scarcely any purple edgings; back velvety black, glossed with purple, the upper tail- coverts of the last-named colour ; tail-feathers purplish black, inclining to duller black on the inner webs ; entire under surface of body deep purple, much brighter on the breast and flanks; under wing-coverts black glossed with purple. Total length 5°8 inches, culmen 0°65, wing 2°3, tail 2:5, tarsus 0°95. Adult female.. Crown of head cobalt, extending in a rather broad band down the nape; a narrow frontal line, lores, sides of face including a narrow eyebrow, and the sides of the hinder crown and nape purplish black ; upper surface of body maroon-chestnut, as also the scapulars and wing-coverts, some of the outermost coverts of the thumb spotted with lilac; quills dark brown, externally edged with rufous like the back, the secondaries tipped with pale rufous; tail-feathers dull indigo, obscurely waved under certain lights, and broadly tipped with white; entire throat purplish blue, descending onto the sides of the chest; centre of of the fore neck, chest, and middle of the body white, the sides of the body light maroon-chestnut, including the thighs and under tail-coverts; the sides of the upper breast distinctly glossed with lilac; under wing- coverts very light rufous, paler on the lower series, a spot on the edge of the wing cobalt-blue ; ‘bill black ; feet dusky olive; iris dark” (/Vallace, MS.). Total length 5:9 inches, culmen 0°65, wing 2°25, tail 2°65, tarsus 0°9. In the Plate I have figured a male of the natural size, with the head of a male, and in the centre is a bird which I take to be a young one, all from the Aru Islands. I was at first inclined to believe that it might be an old female exhibiting differences from the same sex of 7. cyanocephala and wanting the blue throat. As, however, the British Museum contains blue-throated females of 7. bonapartit from the Aru islands, I believe now that it must be only an immature bird, which has not gained the blue throat of the adult. Silke Nauta i ene TODOPSIS WALLACI, ray. Gr Walter Img. LGould &W Hart, de et tithy TODOPSIS WALLACLIL, Gray, Wallace’s Todopsis. Todopsis wallacei, Gray, P. Z. S. 1861, pp. 429, 434, pl. xii. fig. 2—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 168.—Meyer, Sitz. k. Akad. Wien, lxix. p. 81. Tchitrea wallacei, Gray, Handl. B. i. p. 334, no. 5033. Tuts pretty little species is rather different in structure of bill from the other members of the genus. The bill is longer, rather more curved; and the bristles are longer and more numerous, reaching to the end of the bill. In colours also it is very distinct; but I do not feel disposed to found a new generic title at present on these characters. There is, however, another point in connexion with this bird to which I must call attention ; and this has reference to the small Zodopsis which comes from the Aru Islands, and of which I have a single specimen in my collection. I have compared this with the typical examples from Mysol in the British Museum, and I notice that the Aru bird has a black streak under the eye and the spots on the head are in the form of rounded tips of blue to the feathers of the crown, quite different from the lanceolate tips which appear in the Mysol species. If the receipt of future specimens should confirm my impression that the Aru bird is distinct, I propose the name of Zodopsis coronata for it. Wallace’s Yodopsis differs from all the others in its small size, exceedingly delicate legs and toes, and the whitish colouring of the entire undersurface, and in having the tail tipped with white, which is only found in the females of the other members of the genus. Nothing has been recorded of the habits of this species, which is described as follows by the late Mr. George Robert Gray :— “Top of the head black, with the tips of the feathers light blue, and the shaft bluish white; back rufous, wings and tail dark brown ; wing-coverts tipped with white ; round the eyes, lores, ear-coverts, and beneath the body white ;. quills narrowly margined with white; the tips of the outer tail-feathers also white. ‘Total length 4 inches 7 lines, bill from gape 8 lines, wings 2 inches. “The young bird is rufous-white on the throat; the bill is black tipped with yellowish white, differs from that of the typical Zodopsis in being longer and somewhat curved and in having the bristles as long as the bill.” The three figures in the Plate are of the size of life, the one in the foreground representing the 7° coro- nata from Aru, the centre bird being drawn from one of the typical specimens in the British Museum. Sold & Wier t, del eb bitty: AK PY § Wakier Imp. TODOPSIS GRAYI, Pail. Gray’s Todopsis. Todopsis grayi, Wallace, P. Z. 8. 1862, p. 166.—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 168.—Beccari, Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. vii. p. 709.—Meyer, Sitz. k. Akad. Wien, Ixix. pp. 81, 212. Tchitrea grayi, Gray, Hand-list of Birds, i. p. 334, no. 5034. Tus is one of the most distinct species of Zodopsis yet discovered, being totally unlike any of the other members of the genus, its silvery grey or glaucous coloration being quite sufficient to distinguish it at a glance. It was discovered by Mr. Wallace in the mountains of Sorong in North-western New Guinea; and it still remains one of the rarest species of the genus, as Iam only aware of one other instance of its capture, viz. the specimen mentioned by Beccari as having been obtained by Mr. Bruijn’s hunters in the Arfak mountains. It is probable, however, that the Zodopsis sericyanea of Rosenberg, and the Myagra glauca of Schlegel may also belong to the present species ; but at present I have not been able to determine this for certain. It is much to be regretted that Dr. Beccari never met with this bird himself, as from his pen we shoul have undoubtedly received some information as to its habits, of which I can at present record absolutely nothing. The following description of the type is from Mr. Sharpe’s ‘ Catalogue of Birds : ’— Adult. General colour above dull blue, brighter and more cobalt on the lower back and rump; wing- coverts brown, slightly washed externally with olive, and tipped with dull verditer blue; quills brown, broadly washed externally with olivaceous brown; tail-feathers brown, externally bluish, slightly washed with olivaceous on the margins and tipped with white ; head dull greyish blue, inclining to ashy verditer above the eyes and on the sides of the crown: feathers in front of the eye blackish, as also a broad streak above the ear-coverts; round the eye a circlet of verditer feathers; ear-coverts verditer blue, the feathers rather elongated, and streaked with brighter cobalt; cheeks and throat silvery whitish, with a bluish gloss, the rest of the under surface pale ashy blue, washed with a cobalt shade ; under wing-coverts like the breast ; thighs olivaceous brown. Total length 5:7 inches, culmen 0:7, wing 2°55, tail 2-5, tarsus 1:0. The figures in the Plate, which represent the species in two different attitudes, are taken from the type specimen in the British Museum. th ee aa * . * Ma J. Gould kWHart del. et bith, MALURUS ALBOSCAPULATUS, Meve: Walter unp. MALURUS ALBOSCAPULATUS, meyer. Pied Malurus. Malurus alboscapulatus, Meyer, Sitzungsberichte der k.-k. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Wien, Bd. Ixix. p. 496 (1874).—T. Salvadori, Ann. del Mus. Civ. di Genova, vol. vil. 1875, p. 778. Tue discovery of this little bird in New Guinea is a welcome addition to the Australian genus Malurus. I say Australian genus ; for it is in that country where all the other known species are found, and over which they are generally dispersed. They are divisible into several little sections to which generic terms might be given—the blue-crowned bird of Tasmania forming part of a group which differs from the variegated and more gorgeous species of the mainland, the delicate white-winged birds inhabiting the interior, the red-backed frequenting the great grass-beds of the plains, being as many natural divisions. The nests of all the species are dome-shaped ; and many of the kinds are foster-parents of the little Bronzy Cuckoo Chalcites lucidus &c. The two principal figures in the accompanying Plate are copied from a bird in Dr. Meyer’s Arfak collection, while the other is from a specimen collected on the south coast. I have taken. considerable trouble to satisfy myself that the birds received from these distant localities are really identical ; and I may state that size, and size alone, is the only difference that exists between them, the southern bird being by about one sixth the smallest in all admeasurements. Until I have an opportunity of seeing more specimens than I have done, I shall regard the two birds, although so widely distributed, as one and the same. Of M. Salvadori’s nqimii I have not seen a specimen, and am therefore unable to state if it is a female or young male or a different bird from the one under consideration. A few words will sufficiently describe the MJalurus alboscapulatus. Body and tail shining velvety black ; wings brownish, on each shoulder a large glowing white spot ; bill, feet, and tarsi black. Hab. Arfak Mountains, New Guinea. The figures in the accompanying Plate are of the natural size. W. Hart del et lath. IRJEUEPIT DURA RUBROFRONTATA, Ramsar. Minter Bros. ump. RHIPIDURA RUBROFRONTATA, Ramsay. Rufous-fronted Fantail Flycatcher. Rhipidura rubrofrontata, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, iv. p. 82 (1879).—-Layard, Ibis, 1880, p. 293.— Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, vi. p. 178 (1881).—Salvad. Orn. Papuasia e delle Molucche, li. p. 68 (1881), iii. p. 533 (1882). Rhipidura rufofronta, Ramsay, Nature, xx. p. 125 (1879).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. xiv. p. 508 (1879). Rhipidura rufofrontata, Salvad. Ibis, 1880, pp. 127, 129. Tue present species belongs to the group of Fantailed. Flycatchers which have the lower part of the back cinnamon-rufous, contrasting in colour with the mantle and upper back. It is very closely allied to the Australian Rhipidura rufifrons, but is a smaller bird and differs, moreover, in the following characters, viz. :— The tips of the tail-feathers are pure white and not ashy white, and the under tail-coverts are deep rufous instead of pale cinnamon-buff; the black band of the fore neck is narrower, and the ear-coverts are blacker. The rufous base on the tail is more restricted in R. rubrofrontata, where it is hidden by the coverts, whereas in 2. rufifrons it occupies nearly half the tail-feathers. It would thus appear that R. rubrofrontata is the representative of FR. rufifrons in the Solomon Islands, where it was discovered by Mr. Cockerell in the Island of Guadalcanar. Mr. Ramsay at one time considered it to be identical with Canon Tristram’s R. russata from S. Christoval; but as he lent us the type specimen of the present bird, we were enabled to compare the two species, and can affirm that they are quite distinct. The following description is taken from the typical specimen lent to us by Mr. E. P. Ramsay :— Adult male. General colour above brown, the lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts rufous ; wing-coverts like the back, the outer ones slightly tinged with rufous; quills dark brown, edged with paler brown, tinged with rufous on the inner secondaries ; tail-feathers blackish brown, broadly tipped with white, and having the base of the outer web rufous, this being almost entirely concealed by the rufous upper tail-coverts ; crown of head brown like the back; forehead and feathers above the eye orange-rufous, as well as the upper edge of the eyelid, the hinder frontal plumes tipped with tiny brown spots like the rest of the crown ; lores, feathers below the eyes, and ear-coverts blackish brown, with a white mark on the lower eyelid ; cheeks and throat white, followed by a black band across the lower throat; the feathers of the fore neck scaly, black with white edges ; sides of the fore neck and chest dark ashy, the sides of the breast brown, with a rufous tinge; centre of abdomen white; thighs and under tail-coverts orange-rufous ; axillaries and under wing-coverts brown washed with rufous, the lower ones white; quills dusky below, ashy whitish along the inner web. Total length 5:2 inches, culmen 0:5, wing 2°6, tail 2°9, tarsus 0°7. In the Plate two figures are given, of the natural size, drawn from the type specimen which Mr. Ramsay lent to us. [R. B. S.] a 2 ae ae ee ss W Hart del et lith. JRIBUDP OD CR / = A AL oh r 1A ID; Tf JCOTHORAX, Salvad. Minterr, Bros.imp. RHIPIDURA LEUCOTHORAX, Saivaa. White-breasted Fantail Flycatcher. Rhipidura leucothorax, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. vi. p. 311 (1874).—Id. & D’Albert. op. cit. vil. p. 820 (1875).—Salvad. op. cit. ix. p. 25 (1876), x. p. 134 (1876).—Oustalet, Bull. Soc. Philom. 1877, p. 6.— Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iv. p. 327 (1879).—D’Albert. & Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. xiv. p. 60 (1879).—Salvad. ¢. c. p. 498 (1879).—Id. Orn. Papuasia, etc. ii. p. 58 (1881). Rhipidura episcopalis, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. 8. W. ii. p. 371 (1878).—Salvad. Ibis, 1879, p. 323. Tuts species belongs to the section of the genus Rhipidura with blackish under tail-coverts and rounded white spots on the chest. The large white breast-patch distinguishes it from all its near allies. In North-western New Guinea the present bird has been found in Hatam and at Mariati by Bruijn, and D’Albertis procured specimens in Southern New Guinea on the Fly River, near Hall Bay and at Naiabui. Mr. Ramsay has also described a bird as 2. episcopalis from Goldie River, in the interior of South-eastern New Guinea, which is certainly the same as R. l/eucothoraw. It shonld be noticed, however, that the single example in the British Museum, determined by Count Salvadori himself to be #. leucothoraw, differs from his description in having the chin white, and may belong to another species, unless it is the young bird. The following is a description of the type specimen of Rhipidura episcopalis, which has been lent to us by Mr. Ramsay :— Adult male. General colour above earthy brown, the head a little more dusky than the back and blacker on the forehead ; scapulars like the back ; wing-coverts black, spotted with white at their ends; primary- coverts blackish ; quills dark sooty brown; upper tail-coverts black; tail-feathers black, tipped with white, increasing in extent toward the outermost ; lores and base of forehead, feathers above and below the eye, and ear-coverts black, extending on to the sides of the neck; above the eye a band of white separated from the crown by a narrow line of black ; hinder part of cheeks white, widening out on the sides of the throat and neck, and forming a large white patch ; fore part of cheeks and throat black, widening out on the fore neck and chest, and having rounded white spots on the latter ; remainder of breast white, the adjoining chest- feathers black, tipped with white, or white with black edges ; sides of body and flanks pale ashy brown ; vent and under tail-coverts black, the latter with white tips ; thighs black; axillaries white with black bases ; under wing-coverts black, tipped with white ; quills dusky below, pale brown along the edge of the inner web. Total length 6°8 inches, culmen 0°65, wing 3:05, tail 3:5, tarsus 0-85. The Plate has been drawn from the specimen above described, which is represented in two positions, of the size of life. [R. B. S.J astaags: ont l diet shawnee JIREMPMDOURA COCIKIERELLI, Ramsay. W.Hart del, et, lith. Mirtern Bros.wmp. RHIPIDURA COCKERELLL Cockerell’s Fantail Flycatcher. Sauloprocta cockerelh, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales, iv. p. 81 (1879).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genova, xiv. p. 508.—Id. Ibis, 1880, p. 129.—Id. Orn. Papuasia, etc. ii. p. 53 (1881).—Id. op. cit. iii., App. p. 531 (1882). Rhipidura cockerelli, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales, vi. p. 181 (1881).—Tristr. Ibis, 1882, p. 142. —Ramsay, Ibis, 1882, p. 473. Tuis species was described by Mr. Ramsay from a specimen obtained in Guadalcanar, in the Solomon group, by Mr. Cockerell. In the absence of specimens Count Salvadori was inclined to think that it might be the same species as R. ¢rico/or, an identification which was rather warmly resented by Mr. Ramsay, who certainly might be supposed to know thoroughly so familiar a species as R. tricolor of Australia. On examining the type specimen, which Mr. Ramsay has kindly lent to us, we find that it is not of the Sauloprocta type at all, but is, as Count Salvadori has more recently suggested, a true Rfgpidura as regards coloration. As, however, we cannot admit that Sauloprocta is generically distinct from Rhipidura, it follows that its position in the latter genus would be between A. perlata and R. tricolor, in the same black-throated section as the last-named bird. It may, however, be distinguished by its smaller size, by the ovate drops of white on the fore neck and chest, and by the broad white margins to the inner secondaries. The following description is taken from the type specimen lent to us by Mr. Ramsay :— Adult male (type of species). General colour above brownish black, the long feathers of the rump tipped with white and forming a tolerably complete band; lesser wing-coverts like the back ; median and greater coverts blackish brown, narrowly edged with black, the latter with a small spot of white at the ends; bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills blackish brown, the inner secondaries broadly margined with white, extending round the ends of the innermost ; upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers blackish brown ; head black, deeper than the back; over the eye a spot of silvery white ; cheeks, throat, and chest black, the cheeks slightly varied with a few white tips to the feathers, the lower throat, fore neck, and chest variegated with large ovate subterminal drops of white on each feather ; breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts white, with a few blackish edgings to the breast-feathers ; thighs black ; axillaries blackish brown tipped with white ; under wing-coverts black, with white spots at the ends of the feathers ; quills dusky blackish below, browner along the edge of the inner web. Total length 6-3 inches, culmen 0°6, wing 3°35, tail 3°4, tarsus 0°6. The Plate represents the adult male in two positions, drawn from the typical example. The figures are of the natural size. [R. B. S.J ‘ \ , oe ’ eee + " . i = eS % i a i. Ags Ley aks ie ” 4 * 7 Ae rs e} ‘ ' « te eae rss TE 748 . $e a i eh Li Bar sAre Lea a ube = ; x ra i =F : : i . 1 , : . d ia) Le) Fit 5 r 5. : : - uf . : ’ i i, - 7 , Pris, , . av. * i 7 rs ' : MS , a oe , J de Q if i “rat it ile on A mi & ie) a i Ll : ; ; F a 5 , ' ‘ ae La re ed Ct 2 te a, ee _o ~ ‘ iL « . . . r i * ' : ‘ ' ‘ > * a ’ e é aay . - ot? — r ‘ i ‘ 0 r ‘ + ‘ 4 4 . e . 7 ‘ Lj ~ 7 - —_ w ! = - = an i FF . * i ‘ su” iim ye 4 ; = ean ai : i ; ‘ : ? [ es = — + Ss ' ey + v ; . 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REUPIDURA OPISTHERYTHRA, Sclaer: WHart det et kithy. RHIPIDURA OPISTHERYTHRA, Selater. Larat Fantail Flycatcher. Rhipidura opistherythra, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1883, p. 197. Tue present species belongs to the Australian group of Rufous-backed Fantail Flycatchers ; it is very nearly allied to Rhipidura rufa, but is much larger and has a white spot on the lores. The throat is also white instead of being dull ashy, and the tail likewise seems different, as R. rufa is described as having broad tips of pale rufous to the tail-feathers, which cannot be said to be the case with the present species. Mr. H. O. Forbes discovered this Flycatcher on the islands of Larat and Maroe in the Tenimber group. The latter island is distant about twenty miles to the north-west of the mainland of the northern island, which the natives call Yamdena, and which is known to Europeans as Timor Laut. The following description is taken from the typical specimen :— Adult male. General colour above dusky brown, gradually shading off into rufous on the back, and deepening into ferruginous on the lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts ; lesser wing-coverts like the back, slightly washed with ferruginous; median and greater coverts, bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills dusky brown, narrowly edged with deep ferruginous; tail-feathers dusky brown, externally ferruginous, the centre feathers broadly tipped with the latter colour, the others becoming reddish brown towards their ends, this colour increasing in extent towards the outermost feather; lores dull white, forming a rather conspicuous spot; no eyebrow; ear-coverts dusky brown, with pale shaft-lines ; cheeks and throat white ; fore neck and chest pale ochraceous buff, deepening into pale reddish buff on the rest of the under surface ; thighs and under tail-coverts more ferruginous; under wing-coverts and axillaries like the breast; quills below dusky, inner edges ashy rufous; “‘ upper mandible sooty brown, lower one sooty brown at tip, pale flesh-colour at the base; legs and feet lavender-pink; iris dark brown” (ZZ. O. Forbes). Total length 6:8 inches, culmen 0°6, wing 2°8, tail 4, tarsus 1. The type specimen, for the loan of which we are indebted to the kindness of Dr. Sclater, is represented in the accompanying Plate of the natural size and in two positions. [R. B. S.J pee ee ee oP a Walter , Imp. WHart del. ct lith. RHIPIDURA HAMADRYAS, Selater. Rufous-backed Fantail Flycatcher. Rhipidura hamadryas, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1883, p. 54. Tuts species belongs to the section of the genus Rhipidura with the rump and upper tail-coverts rufous or cinnamon-coloured. Its nearest allies would appear to be R. semicollaris from Eastern Timor and R. dryas from Northern Australia; but from both of these it is distinguished by the mantle being rufous like the rest of the back, and by the ashy tips to the tail-feathers. The only specimens known were procured in Larat by Mr. H. O. Forbes during his first expedition to the Tenimber group; and I am indebted to Dr. Sclater for lending me the type specimen from which the accompanying description has been drawn up. — . Adult female. General colour above dark ferruginous or cinnamon-rufous ; lesser wing-coverts brown, with a slight wash of rufous ; median and greater coverts, bastard-wing, primary-coverts and quills dusky brown, narrowly margined with ashy rufous, a little clearer rufous on the inner greater coverts and the secondaries ; upper tail-coverts like the back ; tail-feathers ashy brown, all but the centre ones with a broad tip of greyish white to the inner web, before which is a shade of black, the outer feathers also shaded with ashy whitish at the end of both webs; the bases of all the tail-feathers edged with ferruginous; forehead bright ferruginous, extending backwards to above the eye; remainder of the crown and hind neck dusky brown; lores and feathers below the eye blackish; ear-coverts sooty brown; cheeks and throat white, with a large spot of black on the lower part of the latter ; remainder of under surface creamy buff; the sides of the upper breast ashy olive; sides of body and flanks a little deeper fulvous, as also the thighs; under tail-coverts fulvous white ; under wing-coverts and axillaries ashy fulvous, the latter with whitish edgings ; quills below dusky ; inner edge of quills ashy; ‘legs and feet black ; iris dark brown or black” (ZZ. O. Fordes). Total length 5°6 inches, culmen 0°5, wing 2°4, tail 3, tarsus 0°8. The Plate represents an adult female of this species, of the natural size, in two positions. [R. B. S.] RHIPIDURA FUSCORUFA, Sclazer. Malte frp. : ; ; RHIPIDURA FUSCO-RUEA, Selater. Timor-Laut Fantail Flycatcher. Rhipidura fusco-rufa, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1833, p. 197, pl. xxvii. Tus Flycatcher appears to us, after a comparison with the ‘Keys to the species” of Mhipedura given in the British-Museum ‘ Catalogue of Birds,’ and in Count Salvadori’s ‘ Ornitologia della Papuasia,’ to belong to a totally new section of the genus. Its rufous outer tail-feathers and a peculiar distribution of rufous and brown coloration about the bird render it quite distinct from any other known species. In the character of the tail it approaches somewhat the female of 2. drachyrhyncha, Schlegel, from New Guinea ; but there the resemblance ends, as the coloration of the rest of the plumage is totally different. Mr. Forbes sent a large series of this species from Larat, Moloe, and Loetoe; and it would appear to be common in the Tenimber Islands which he visited. The following is a description of the type specimen :— Adult male. General colour above dull chocolate-brown, the head and hind neck duller and more sooty brown; wing-coverts dusky brown, the least and median series tipped and the greater series edged with pale ferruginous ; bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills dusky black; the secondaries edged with pale ferruginous, more broadly on the inner ones; the four centre tail-feathers entirely dusky blackish, the next pair blackish, excepting for a shade of pale ferruginous towards the end of the feather, the three outermost entirely pale ferruginous with yellowish-white shafts; sides of face, lores, and ear-coverts dusky blackish ; the fore part of the cheeks white, and a half-concealed white spot above the eye; throat and fore neck white, the sides of the latter ashy streaked with white; remainder of the under surface very pale ferruginous, deepening in tint on the thighs, vent, and under tail-coverts; under wing-coverts and axillaries richer ferruginous; quills dusky below, ashy rufous along the edge of the inner webs ; ‘bill, legs, and feet black ; iris dark brown” (HZ. O. Forbes). ‘Total length 6°75 inches, culmen 0°75, wing 3°6, tail 3-5, tarsus 0°75. The Plate represents an adult male of this species, in two positions, of the natural size. [R. B. S.] Tbould & WHart, del. et luth. IRECOP DURA DRYAS, Gould. Walter imp. RHIPIDURA DRYAS, Gouid. Wood-Fantail. Rhipidura dryas, Gould, Birds of Australia, 8vo edition, vol. 1. page 242. Tur members of the genus of Flycatchers called Répidura are so universally dispersed over Australia, New Guinea, the Philippines, and India that it would be difficult to name either of these countries where one or other of the members are not to be found. To enter into the specific characters of all the known species would be out of the question in a work like the ‘ Birds of Australia ;’ this can only be properly and effectively done by the monographist ; suffice it to say that the present bird, notwithstanding what I have stated in my ‘ Introduction to the Birds of Australia,’ is very distinct from any other species I have ever met with; and a comparison of the accompanying Plate with figures of its allies will at once convince ornithologists that this is the case. The following is extracted from my ‘ Handbook to the Birds of Australia,’ at the page quoted above. « This bird differs from 2. ruffrons in being of a smaller size, in its dark-grey tail-feathers being more largely tipped with white, and merely fringed with rufous at the base only, in the breast being white, crossed by a distinct band of black, and devoid of the dark spotted markings seen on the chest of its ally. Total length 52 inches, wing 23, tail 34, tarsus 2. R. dryas inhabits the north-western portion of Australia, where it appears to be as common as R. rujfifrons is in the south-eastern. I had several specimens, all of which bore a general resemblance to each other. The majority of these little birds dwell in the utmost recesses of the forest; there they fan out their large tails, and make their displays without ever being seen, unless man in his wanderings and investigations should intrude upon their privacy. In the capture of their insect prey these tiny-billed gnat-catchers exbibit themselves in many graceful attitudes, sometimes running along the branches of trees, or over large stones, or restlessly darting here and there after Aphid and other minute flies. When they are by nature prompted to breed, they construct without exception the neatest and most charming of nests, the grassy materials with which the walls are formed being woven together with the webs of the most minute spiders. In this frail structure, about the size of an egg-cup, two beautifully speckled eggs are deposited. There is no outward difference between the sexes. The Plate represents two individuals of the size of life. | RHIPIDURA HYPERYTHRA, Gray. W. Hert deb et lith. Morterry Bros.imp RHIPIDURA HYPERYTHRA, Gray. Rufous-breasted Fantail Flycatcher. Rhipidura rufiventris (nec Vieill.), Verh. Land- en Volkenk. p. 185 (1839-44).—Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 259 (1846).— Bp. Consp. i. p. 323 (1850).—Sclater, Journ. Linn. Soc. ii. p. 162 (1858).—Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858, pp. 176, 192.—Id. Cat. Mamm. etc. New Guinea, pp. 28, 57 (1859).—Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, p. 434.—Rosenb. J. f. O. 1864, p. 119.—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 169 (1865). Rhipidura hyperythra, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858, pp. 176, 192.—Id. Cat. Mamm. etc. New Guinea, pp. 28, 57 (1859).—Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, p. 434.—Rosenb. J. f. O. 1864, p. 119.—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 169 (1865).—Gray, Hand-list Birds, 1. p. 331, no. 4977 (1869).—Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1873, p. 696.—Sharpe, Cat. Birds in Brit. Mus. iv. p. 338 (1879).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. xiv. p. 499 (1879).—Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc., Zool. xvi. p. 431 (1882).—Salvad. Orn. Papuasia e delle Molucche, ii. p. 65 (1881), iii. App. p. 532 (1882). Rhipidura, sp., Gray, Hand-list Birds, i. p. 231, no. 4976 (1869). Rhipidura muelleri, Meyer, Sitz. k. Akad. Wien, lxx. p. 502 (1874).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. x. p. 135 (1877). , Rhipidura castaneothoraz, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, iii. p. 270 (1879), iv. p. 98 (1879).—Salvad. Ibis, 1879, p. 323. Tuis is a very distinct species of Fantail Flycatcher, and is easily recognized by its style of colour on the underparts, the chin and cheeks being white, the throat black, and the breast rufous. It was first described by S. Muller from Lobo Bay, in New Guinea, but he gave it the name of Rhzpidura rufiventris, which already belonged to the species from Timor. Count Salvadori states that he could not find the type of Miiller’s species in the Leiden Museum, and it was apparently exchanged away to the late Mr. Gould, as his collection contained a specimen of this bird marked as from Lobo Bay, which is now in the British Museum, having been purchased with the rest of the Gould Collection. Mr. Wallace subsequently discovered the species in the Aru Islands, and we cannot perceive any difference between examples from the last-named locality and from New Guinea, It seems to inhabit the whole of the latter island, as Dr. Meyer found it at Rubi, and Signor D’Albertis on the Arfak Mountains. It was afterwards obtained by Mr. Broadbent on the Goldie River, about 40 miles inland from Port Moresby, and was named by Mr. Ramsay 2. castaneothoraw. We have, however, examined specimens from this part of New Guinea, and can affirm that they are the same as the Aru Island and Lobo birds. Mr. Goldie has forwarded a specimen from the Morocco district in the Astrolabe Mountains, where he says it is called by the natives ‘‘Urobiagga.” Mr. H. O. Forbes has likewise sent a pair from the Sogeri district in the same range of mountains, where he obtained them at an altitude of 2000 feet. The following is a description of the type specimen of R. hyperythra in the British Museum :— General colour above slaty grey, a little darker on the crown and sides of the head; the lores and feathers round the eye blackish; over the eye a distinct white streak, and a second narrow line of white above the upper edge of the ear-coverts less distinctly indicated ; cheeks, chin, and moustache white; centre of throat black, widening out upon the lower throat; rest of under surface of body orange-rufous, slightly paler towards the lower abdomen and vent; thighs slaty grey; under wing-coverts pale orange-buff; quills ashy below, whitish along the inner webs; wings above resembling the back, the greater series and secondaries brown, washed externally with grey ; the primaries entirely brown; median and greater coverts tipped with buff or whitish spots; tail slaty black, the three outer feathers tipped with white, with an obscure subterminal band of dull brown: ‘bill black, the lower mandible yellow; feet dusky olive” (Wallace). Total length 6:4 inches, culmen 0°5, wing 2°8, tail 3:2, tarsus 0°65. The male bird collected by Mr. Forbes has the head blacker than in the female, but otherwise the sexes are alike in colour. The figures in the Plate represent a male and female of the natural size, drawn from the pair of specimens obtained by Mr. Forbes in the Astrolabe Mountains. [R. B. 8.] Poe eee ie oe ese . * : ma? ‘ ~ + r — - si : . - : ~ ‘ ’ + ate + Lt Be ‘ ‘ie ny eg fa f fecal mee ve oe ve mn sacl say Pe ie a a MYITAGRA FULVIVENTRIS , Sclater. W. Hart del et lth. Minter Bros.tmp. MYIAGRA FULVIVENTRIS, Seater. Buff-bellied Flycatcher. Myiagra fulviventris, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1883, pp. 54, 200.—Meyer, Zeitschr. gesammte Orn. i. p. 194 (1884). Tuis is one of the most distinct of all the species of grey-backed Flycatchers of the genus Myiagra, as it can only be confounded with two other species, viz. MZ. erythrops, which has a rufous forehead, and with the female of MW. galeata. The latter, however, has the upper parts much duller grey, and the rufous of the under surface is paler and almost uniform, the abdomen being only a shade lighter than the throat and breast ; but in JZ. fulviventris, as may be seen from the Plate, the throat and breast are of a fine rich orange-rufous, contrasting with the paler colour of the abdomen and sides of the body. __ This species was discovered by Mr. H. O. Forbes in the Tenimber Islands, having been met with by him in Larat as well as in Loetoer, The following descriptions are taken from the typical specimens in the British Museum :— Adult male. General colour above leaden grey, with a slight greenish gloss ; wing-coverts like the back ; bastard-wing slightly more dusky ashy; primary-coverts and quills dusky, externally edged with ashy grey, rather paler on the primaries; tail-feathers pale slaty grey, with lighter ashy margins, and barred indistinctly with dusky under certain lights, and the outer feathers slightly tipped with fulvous; lores dull ashy; ear- coverts leaden grey like the head; cheeks, throat, and breast deep rich orange-rufous, the abdomen, sides of body, and under tail-coverts pale fawn-buff; thighs more ashy; axillaries and under wing-coverts a little deeper rufous-buff; quills dasky below, ashy along the edge of the inner web: “ bill black; legs and feet black ; the soles yellow; iris dark brown” (ZZ. O. Forbes). Total length 5-5 inches, culmen 0°55, wing 2°8, tail 2°8, tarsus 0°75. Adult female. Very similar to the male, but rather paler, especially on the under surface of the body : “bill lavender” CH. O. Forbes). Total length 5 inches, culmen 0°6, wing 2°55, tail 2-4, tarsus 0°75. Another male bird collected by Mr. Forbes in Loetoer has the bill marked as lavender-coloured, like the female above described, which is from Larat. The bird from which the description of the adult male is taken is also from Larat, and is the one which is figured in the Plate. [R. B. 8.] «i W. Hart del et lth. MATAGRA CIWROVIDNIICAIUIDA, Iristr. Miuntern Bros.ump. +: MYIAGRA CERVINICAUDA, Triser. Fawn-tailed Flycatcher. Myjiagra cervinicauda, Tristram, Ibis, 1879, p.439.—Salvad. Ibis, 1880, p. 130.—Tristr. tom. cit. p. 246.—Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, ete. ii. p. 79 (1881).—Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W. vi. p. 726 (1881).—Tristr. Ibis, 1882, pp. 137, 142.—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. xviii. p. 423 (1882).—Id. Orn. Papuasia, ete. iii. p- 533 (1882).—Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. vii. p. 24 (1882). Many of the Myagre, or Broad-billed Flycatchers, seem to be more easily recognized by the females than by the male birds. Such is certainly the case with the present species; for the male is scarcely to be distin- guished from the same sex of MZ. melanura of the New Hebrides, whereas the hens of the two species are easily separable, the clear grey head and ear-coverts, the fawn-coloured abdomen and under tail-coverts, as well as the fawn-coloured tail-feathers, at once distinguishing MZ. cervinicauda. As might be expected, M. ferrocyanea is also very like the present species; but the male is distinguished by its purplish upper surface, and the female by the white underparts. The present species is doubtless peculiar to the Solomon group of islands, having been met with in Rendova by Capt. Richards and by Mr. Morton in Ugi. The following is a description of a pair of birds lent to us by Mr. Ramsay :— Adult male. General colour above dull bottle-green, becoming greyer on the lower back and rump; upper tail-coverts like the back; wing-coverts like the back; bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills blackish, externally edged with the same colour as the back, rather greyer on the secondaries ; tail-feathers greenish black, with a greyish shade on the edges; lores and feathers below the eye velvety black ; sides of face, ear-coverts, cheeks, throat, and chest greenish black; breast and remainder of under surface, including the thighs and under tail-coverts, white ; axillaries and under wing-coverts white, the edge of the wing mottled with greenish black ; quills blackish below, white along the edge of the inner web. Total length 5-7 inches, culmen 0°55, wing 2°65, tail 2°3, tarsus 0°6. | Adult female. General colour above rufous-brown, the upper tail-coverts fawn-coloured and contrasting with the back ; wing-coverts blackish, edged with rufous-brown like the back ; bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills blackish, with scarcely any rufous margin, except on the secondaries ; two centre tail-feathers entirely brown ; the next two brown, with a small fawn-coloured tip ; the next brown along the inner web, fawn-coloured at the tip and along the outer web, the two outermost entirely pale fawn-colour ; head and nape French grey, contrasting with the back ; a line across the base of the forehead, lores, and eyelid pale tawny buff; ear-coverts French grey like the crown; cheeks, throat, and breast deeper tawny, the abdomen and thighs lighter and more tawny brown, deeper again on the sides of the body and the under tail-coverts; axillaries and under wing-coverts like the breast. Total length 5:2 inches, culmen 0:65, wing 2°45, tail 2°3, tarsus 0°65. The figures in the Plate are drawn from the pair of birds above described, and represent an adult male and female of the natural size. (R. B. $.] = =. =o is jane - _ = = i h ; 7 i 4 + ‘ See = Le pam 7 age - ks 2 ‘ i 7 a - ® = - lt 8 ? : i " z / i, i ; 1 7 F : : Z i : MYIAGRA FEIRIROCYANIEA, Ranusay. W. Hert del et: lth. Mintern Bros.ump. MYIAGRA FERROCYANEA, Ramsay. Purple-backed Flycatcher. Myiagra ferrocyanea, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. iv. p. 78 (1879).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genov. xiv. p. 508 (1879).—Id. Ibis, 1880, p. 129.—Id. Orn. Papuasia, ete. ii. p. 79 (1881), iii. p. 533 (1882). Myiagra pallida, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. 8. W. iv. p. 78 (1879).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genov. xiv. p. 508 (1879).—Id. Ibis, 1880, p. 129.—Id. Orn. Papuasia, etc. ii. p. 79 (1881). On comparing the male of the present species with its allies, it will be found at once to be very distinct by reason of its purple back. The female was described by Mr. Ramsay as a distinct species (J. pallida), although he appears to have entertained doubts at the time whether it might not be the hen bird of a black- throated male. We have no hesitation in adopting the latter view, although, according to some observers, it would be quite possible to have two species, as dissimilar as the sexes of the present bird, living side by side in the same island. Where a black-throated male occurs, however, along with a red-throated bird, we believe that the latter will be found to be the female, and that it is only in certain islands that both sexes are red- or white-throated. The nearest approach to the coloration of the females of MW. ferrocyanea occurs in AZ. cervinicauda of Tristram; but here the rufous on the chin and under surface of body at once distinguishes them. The following descriptions are taken from the original specimens lent to us by Mr. Ramsay :— Adult male (type of Myiagra ferrocyanea, Ramsay). General colour above deep purplish, the head, which is much crested, being more of a deep steel-blue colour; wing-coverts purple like the back; bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills blackish brown, narrowly edged with blue-black ; upper tail-coverts blue-black, not so purple as the back ; tail-feathers blue-black ; lores velvety black; sides of face, ear-coverts, cheeks, sides of neck, throat, and fore neck deep purple, inclining to steel-blue on the throat; remainder of under surface from the chest downwards and including the thighs, under tail-coverts, axillaries, and under wing- coverts pure white; quills dusky below, white, along the edge of the inner web. Total length 5:3 inches, culmen 0:55, wing 2°75, tail 2°5, tarsus 0°65. Adult female (type of Myiagra pallida, Ramsay). General colour above pale reddish brown, with an ashy shade on the scapulars and lower back, as well as the lesser wing-coverts; median and greater coverts, bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills dusky brown, externally edged with light rufous, the margins nearly obsolete on the bastard-wing and primary-coverts ; upper tail-coverts light rufous; tail-feathers pale brown, externally edged with pale rufous, the outer feathers almost entirely pale rufous, dusky brown towards the tips and along the outer webs; crown of head, hind neck, and mantle French grey; lores and eyelid whitish; feathers below the eye and ear-coverts French grey; cheeks and entire under surface of body white, faintly shaded with fulvous on the fore neck; lower flanks, thighs, and under tail-coverts washed oh pale rufous; axillaries and under wing-coverts white ; quills dusky brown below, pale rufescent along the edge of the inner web. Total length 5:3 inches, culmen 0°55, wing 2°55, tail 2°45, tarsus 0°55. The figures in the Plate represent the two sexes of the size of life, and are drawn from the types of M. ferrocyanea and M. palkda respectively. [R. B. 8.] * : - 0 la an Py a a my hee i - My P ic vee . 4 (= = / | » MCR OUR TOE RARE eee : - 2 ~)2 - ey £ a Ae Ov Fel ees = i a= = ia) mo a ‘ “ i r = , ROR, Waal ges va ss ee ie ~. : i = aa ; “dl is i it way os 7 2 i fy 1 ueae) Meant. Peers ihae + sae a shana pai ahd exits J ee i fe : ont all i hs roe cout soa irae Be) hy ‘D 7 i i, : i ‘ - vis ie & i Ja , fl : i , > a met Pus! Ey ‘ ‘i tl aha st ym aS inne - ’ . | : 7. i. 5 F feu riy re a Phe a ae. . =F eA ee A A —— i = = | 7 - “os - oh = ™ ; a | st ae x A a - - ] 5 ~ , i , {a , 7 ve yi : ye a \ - ' b - ql i: 1 ad ' _ i Ly - - is ' : : . 7 ; i er u : : : ' rts | z *- Z : : at ae F call a ine ¢ Lis . 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Ae 7 mie Brien He. ; = bg j =" ‘ts 1 FOr, om tepe ee ey Vira, 7 = - Pins + iY of, a Fy oo i‘ . MACHZEIRUREIYNCIEIUS . AULIBIIFRONS, GA.Gray J Gould & WHart del. et lith. Walter ump. MACHACRIRHYNCHUS ALBIFRONS, G. R. Gray. White-fronted Flycatcher. Macherirhynchus albifrons, G. R. Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, p. 429. ‘Tuts bird,” says Mr. G. R. Gray, “is, in many respects, like the JZ. vanthogenys ; but it is at once distin- guished from that species by the front and streak over the eyes being white, and by the bill being rather narrower and slightly sharper in front. «The young bird is of a yellowish olivaceous, with the front and eyebrows pale rufous ; throat and breast white; the latter is waved with fuscous; beneath the rest of the body yellow, and olivaceous on the sides ; wings and tail fuscous, with the coverts of the former margined with white, while the quills are margined with yellow.” In size and general appearance this species approaches the Australian bird to which I have given the name of flaviventer ; but on comparing the drawings of these two birds the most casual observer may discern the difference that exists between them. It will be necessary for me to state that my figures were taken from Mysol specimens collected by Mr. Wallace. I have now figured in the present work three very distinct species of this smgular group of Flycatchers ; a fourth is said to exist in Mr. Gray’s JZ. vanthogenys, a plate of which will appear when I get good Aru specimens for illustration. Total length 4" 11”, bill from gape 93", wing 2" 4”, Hab. Waigiou and Mysol. J.Gould: & WHart del, et lith. MACHZERIRHYNCHIUS NIGRIPECTUS, Schl MACH ARIRHYNCHUS NIGRIPECTUS, Schlegel. Black-breasted Flycatcher. Macharirhynehus nigripectus, Schlegel, Obs. Zool. v., Ned. Tijdschr. voor de Dierk. iv. p. 43 (1873).—George Dawson Rowley, Proc. Zool. Soc. May 1876, p. 414. Macherorhynchus nigripectus, T. Salvadori, Ann. del Mus. Civ. di St. Nat. di Genova, vii. p. 768, 1875.—Atti della Reale Acad. delle Scienze di Torino, February 1875, vol. x. p. 378. Or this very rare species I have received two specimens, from which the accompanying drawing was taken, one very kindly lent to me by Geo. Dawson Rowley, Esq., of Brighton, the other from Dr. Meyer, of Dresden, through the hands of Mr. Gerrard. Both these, I believe, are from the northern part of New Guinea. I regret to be unable to state any particulars as to the habits and disposition of this bird; but its peculiarly constructed bill would naturally lead me to infer that aphides and very soft-winged gnats constitute a great portion of its food. Face hoary, eye surmounted by a stripe of yellow; throat, ear-coverts, neck, and under surface bright yellow ; on the chest a somewhat lengthened tuft of feathers, which are black at their bases and yellow at their tips, giving the appearance of a dark patch on this part of the under surface; crown of head and upper surface generally very dark grey tinged with olive ; tail-feathers black, all but the four centre ones margined and tipped with white ; wings blackish, the lesser and greater wing-coverts and tertiaries tipped with white; bill and Jegs black. In size this bird about equals MZ. wanthogenys and M. albifrons, Total length 42 inches, wing 33, tail 22, tarsi , bill 3. The figures in the accompanying Plate, and which I suppose to represent the male nd female, are of the size of life. Hab. Arfak Mountains, New Guinea. — i celta) - 4 .. i at HETERANAX MUNDUS. Walter, Imp. HETERANAX MUNDUS. Forbes’s Pied Flycatcher. Monarcha mundus, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1883, p. 54, pl. xii. fig. 2. Ix describing this species, Dr. Sclater seems to have had some suspicion that it was not a typical Monarcha, for he figures the bill alongside that of JZ castus, in order to show the difference between them. On the arrival of the typical specimens in the British Museum, we at once compared them with those species which seemed to be their natural allies in the genus Piezorhynchus, and we found that the Timor-Laut bird differed in the structure of its bill from all of them. It is closely allied to the Australian genus Sizwra ; but the latter has the bill flattened, although it is very narrow ; whereas in JZ mundus the bill is not only narrow, but is strongly compressed, so that it is higher than broad at the nostrils. Under these circumstances, we have felt compelled to propose the new generic term of Heteranax (érepos = alter, and avaé = rex). Mr. Forbes informs us that he shot this species near the village of Waitidal, on the island of Larat; it was found not far from the coast. The following description is taken from the original specimens :— Adult male. General colour above iron-grey, with a band of silky white plumes across the ramp; wing- coverts glossy blue-black, including the bastard wing and primary-coverts ; quills black, externally edged with iron-grey, broader on the secondaries ; upper tail-coverts and four central tail-feathers blue-black, the next pair with a white spot near the tip, the latter fringed with black, the other feathers broadly ending in white, increasing in extent towards the outermost, where the white occupies the terminal half of the feather ; forehead, lores, a narrow superciliary line, ear-coverts, and feathers round the eye velvety black ; feathers below the eye, cheeks, sides of face, and sides \of neck pure white; base of cheeks and centre of throat black; sides of the throat and rest of the under surface pure white, with a slight wash of grey on the flanks; thighs black; under wing-coverts and axillaries pure white; edge of wing black; quills dusky blackish below, ashy along the edge of the inner web. Total length 6°4 inches, culmen 0:7, wing 3°25, tail 2°8, tarsus 0°85. J . Adult female. Like the male, but with the black not extending so far down the throat. Wing 3-1 inches. Dr. Sclater having very kindly lent us the typical pair of specimens, before their deposition in the British Museum, we have been enabled to give a figure of them both. They are represented in the Plate, of the size of life. [R. B. 8.] serge ning a vlinarpe 4 .. i Es i a ee ee ARSES TELESCOPHTHALMUS. S Gould 8 W Hart, deb et lithy Walter; Lap. ARSES TELESCOPHTHALMUS. Frilled-necked Flycatcher. Muscicapa telescophthalma, Garnot, Voy. Coquille, i. pt. 2, p. 593, pl. 19. fig. 1 (1826). Muscicapa enado, Less. Voy. Coquille, i. pt. 2, p. 643, pl. 15. fig. 2 (1826).—Sclater, Proc. Linn. Soc. 1858, p. 181. Arses telescophthalnus, Lesson, Traité, p. 387 (1831).—Bp. Consp. i. p. 326 (1850).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genov. x. p. 132 (1877).—Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iv. p. 409 (1879). Monarcha telescophthalma, Swains. Classif. B. ii. p. 257 (1837).—Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 260 (1846).—Id. P. Z. 8. 1858, p. 177, 1859, p. 156.—Id. Cat. B. N. Guinea, p. 30 (1859).—Id. P. Z. S. 1861, p. 435.—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 169 (1865).—Gray, Handl. B. i. p. 320 (1869). Monacha telescophthalma, Swains. Nat. Libr. Flycatchers, p. 140 (1837). Aux the species of the genus 4rses are remarkable for a frill or tippet round the back part of the neck, and for a naked skin of blue which surrounds the eye; the former, it appears, the bird has the power of erecting. That the appearance which I have given to the present species in the accompanying Plate is no exaggeration may be believed from the fact that Signor D’Albertis brought me a specimen, killed by himself, dried in an erect position, in order to show the way in which these birds are capable of elevating this frill. Mr. Broadbent had also preserved some of his specimens with an evident view to show this peculiarity. The present species has been known the longest, having been described in 1826. It appears to be confined to Northern New Guinea and to Mysol, whence numerous specimens have been sent to England, and where a large series also appears to have rewarded the exertions of the Dutch and Italian travellers. It is to be recognized from the allied species by its larger black’chin-spot. The female may be told at a glance from the same sex of 4. aruensis by its white lores, and from the females of 4. batante and A. insularis by its deep orange-chestnut back, which renders the orange collar round the hind neck only a little darker than the rest of the upper surface. The head is blackish or very dark grey; and the colour of the tail, which is rufous-brown edged with chestnut, is also a distinguishing peculiarity of the species. For the following descriptions I am indebted to Mr. Sharpe’s Catalogue :— «Adult male. General colour glossy steel-black ; the scapulars and lower mantle-feathers white at their ends, where they adjoin the lower back, which, with the rump, is white, the bases to the feathers being grey; wings entirely black ; upper tail-coverts and tail black; crown of head, sides of face and ear-coverts; fore part of cheeks, chin, and upper throat black, the plumes of the head of a velvety texture, and with a slight steel gloss ; hinder part of cheeks, sides of neck, and a collar round the hind neck, as well as entire under surface of body pure white, including the under wing-coverts and axillaries ; thighs black, as also the edge of the wing ; ‘bill pearly grey; feet dull lead-colour or ashy ; iris black ; fleshy wattle round the eye sky-blue’ (D’ dibertis). «« Total length 6°4 inches, culmen 0°6, wing 3°15, tail 2°85, tarsus 0°7. «Adult female. General colour orange-brown, brighter on the bind neck; wings dusky brown, all the coverts and quills externally orange-brown or rufous; crown of head dull slate-colour, as well as the feathers round and below the eye; in front of the latter a large spot of dull white; sides of face, sides of neck, throat, and breast orange; remainder of under surface pure white, the flanks washed with reddish brown ; thighs entirely of the latter colour ; under wing-coverts whitish, washed slightly with orange; quills dull brown below, rufous along the inner webs; ‘bill dusky; feet ashy; iris black’ (D’dbertis). «Total length 6:3 inches, culmen 0-6, wing 3-2, tail 2-9, tarsus 0°65.” Fine specimens of this bird are im my own collection ; it will also be found in the British Museum, and Leyden, Dresden, and many other collections both on the Continent and in America. Kalter trp. Sharpe RSES BATANTAZ, Sbauld & WHat deb a tittr. ARSES BATANT A, Sharpe. Large Frilled-necked Flycatcher. Arses batante, Sharpe, Notes Leyden Mus. i. No. 5, p. 20 (1879).—Id. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iv. p. 411 (1879). Tus species is the largest of the genus 4rses yet discovered ; and it is remarkable that a yellow bill and eye-wattle, instead of blue ones, are sometimes seen in adult males. The female is also very different from that sex of the allied species in its coloration, having the back brownish orange, with the wings of the same colour, the innermost secondaries being exactly like the back, as are also the rump and upper tail-coverts ; the tail also is plain orange-chestnut, with a faint shade of brown at the end; the head is dark grey, and the lores white. The islands inhabited by the present bird are Waigiou and Batanta, whence, Mr. Sharpe informs me, the Leyden Museum has a considerable series collected by the late Dr. Bernstein. I transcribe the following detailed description of the species from Mr. Sharpe’s ‘ Catalogue of the Flycatchers :’— “Adult male. Similar to A. telescophthalmus, but rather larger, and sometimes having the wattle round the eye and bill yellow. Total length 7 inches, culmen 0:7, wing 3-4, tail 3, tarsus 0°75. “Adult female. General colour above light rufous, the wing-coverts and inner secondaries like the back ; primary-coverts and primaries dusky brown, externally edged with light rufous, the secondaries more broadly, the inner ones being almost entirely orange-rufous, with a shade of dusky brown on the inner web ; tail-feathers pale rufous, the centre feathers dusky brown, with pale rufous edges and shafts; crown of the head dark grey, as also the feathers round the eye, which are slightly mottled, with white bases ; loral spot dull white; ear-coverts, sides of face, and throat light orange-buff; remainder of the under surface white, the sides of the breast washed with orange; the tibial plumes and under wing-coverts light orange-buff, the edge-of the wing deeper orange; axillaries buffy white ; quills ashy brown below, rufescent along the inner web. Total length 7 inches, culmen 0°65, wing 3:3, tail 3, tarsus 0°8.” The figures in the Plate are drawn from a pair of birds collected by Mr. Wallace in the island of Waigiou, and now in my own cabinet. ARSES ARUENSIS, Sharpe. Jbould & Hark ded a titty Walter dnp. ARSES ARUENSIS, Sharpe. Little Frilled-necked Flycatcher. Arses telescophthalmus, Salvad. & D’ Albert. (nec Garn.), Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. vii. p. 819 (1875).—Salvad. op. cit. ix. p. 24 (1876).—D’ Albert. op. cit. x. p. 19 (1877).—Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W. 1. p. 391 (1877).—Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc. xiii. pp. 316, 497 (1878). Arses aruensis, Sharpe, Notes Leyden Mus. i. No. 5, p. 21 (1879).—Id. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iv. p. 410 (1879).— Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genov. xiv. p. 59 (1879). Ar the time that I made my drawings of the different species of 4rses, which was towards the end of the year 1878, I had occasion to examine closely the series of these birds in my collection; and I came to the conclusion that five species of the genus could be recognized. On communicating my impressions to Count Salvadori, I received a note from him to the effect that his opinion entirely coincided with mine, and that, in the MS. of his forthcoming work on the Birds of New Guinea, he had conferred new titles upon two of the species, which were not previously named. Mr. Bowdler Sharpe, who was at that time absent from England on a visit to Leyden, whither he had gone for the purpose of examining the collection of Flycatchers in the Museum, brought me back word that he had become convinced from a study of the splendid series of Arses in that institution that there were two species still undescribed, and that he had bestowed the names of A. batante and A. aruensis upon them, and had left the descriptions in Professor Schlegel’s hands for publication. A full account of the two birds appeared in the ‘ Notes from the Leyden Museum’ in January of the present year ; and on receiving notice, Count Salvadori very properly suppressed the MS. names which he had given to the species. Mr. Sharpe’s title of arwensis can scarcely be called well chosen, as the bird is by no means confined to the Aru Islands, but extends apparently along the entire coast of Southern New Guinea. Signor D’Albertis has met with it on the Fly River; and it has been procured near Port Moresby by Mr. O. C. Stone and Mr. Kendal Broadbent. The present bird is distinguished by the smaller size of the male and the less-extended black spot on the throat. The female is to be recognized by its brown back and tail, contrasting strongly with the orange collar round the hind neck; the head also is jet-black, and the loral spot orange. The following descriptions are extracted from Mr. Sharpe’s ‘ Catalogue,’ the synonymy of which has been here corrected so as to include the references to the bird’s occurrence in South-eastern New Guinea, which that author forgot by some accident to place under the heading of the present species. “* Adult male. Crown of head, ear-coverts, and sides of face, fore part of cheeks, chin, and extreme upper edge of throat blue-black ; round the hind neck a broad white collar, joining the sides of the neck, which, with the hinder cheeks and the rest of the under surface of the body, are pure white, excepting the tibial plumes, which are black; mantle, scapulars, and upper back blue-black ; wing-coverts also blue-black, the terminal half of the inner greater coverts and the ends of the scapulars white ; primary-coverts and quills black, edged with blue-black ; lower back and rump white ; upper tail-coverts blue-black; tail-feathers black, washed with blue-black on their margins; under wing-coverts and axillaries white; quills blackish below, ashy along the inner edge of the primaries, white on the secondaries. Total length 6°5 inches, culmen 0°6, wing 3:1, tail 2°9, tarsus 0:7. _ Adult female. General colour above dusky orange-brown, the tail also dull brown, with dusky-rufous edges to the feathers ; least wing-coverts like the back, the median and greater series dusky brown with orange-brown edges, and tips of lighter orange ; primary-coverts and quills brown with dull orange-rufous margins, broader on the secondaries ; crown of head, feathers below the eye, and ear-coverts glossy black ; a loral spot of orange ; round the hind neck a collar of bright orange rufous, contrasting strongly with the back; cheeks, throat, and breast bright orange-rufous, deepening almost to chestnut on the latter ; remainder of under surface white, the flanks washed with ashy, the sides of the upper breast orange-rufous ; thighs dusky brown ; under wing-coverts and axillaries white, the edge of the wing orange ; quills dull brown, ru- fescent along the edge of the inner web. — Total length 6 inches, culmen 0°55, wing 2°95, tail 2°75, tarsus 0-7.” Signor D’Albertis says that the bill and feet are dull ashy, the eyes black, and that the bird feeds on insects. The figures in the Plate represent a pair of birds of the size of life, and are taken from specimens in my own collection. They were collected by the late Dr. James in South-eastern New Guinea; and according to the latter gentleman the soft parts are as follows :—* eyes very dark brown surrounded by a disk of blue ; bill pale blue at base, lighter at tip ; feet and tarsi dark leaden colour.” 7 hie “ as = in ee ee ee ee ee ee a ee ee re ee ee ee ee a 4" & JSGould &W Hirt, deb et lith- ARSE Il VSULARIS , Meyer Walter Jop ARSES INSULARIS. Orange-collared Flycatcher. Monarcha insularis, Meyer, Sitzungsb. k. Akad. Wien, lxix. p. 395. Arses insularis, Sclater, P. Z.S. 1878, p. 579.—Sharpe, Notes from Leyden Mus. i. no. 5, p. 20. Tuts beautiful species of 4rses was discovered by Dr. Meyer in the island of Jobi, in the Bay of Geelvink, North-west New Guinea, and would appear to be by no means uncommon in that locality, as he col- lected a considerable number of specimens. It was also met with by the Italian traveller Beccari in the same island. More recently it has been obtained during the voyage of H.M.S. ‘ Challenger,’ at Humboldt Bay in New Guinea, where the ship touched for half an hour on the 23rd of February, 1875. Mr. Bowdler Sharpe, in the first volume of ‘ Notes from the Leyden Museum,’ has described two new species of Arses, and has given a list of the species now known to belong to this genus. They are :— A. telescophthalmus (Garnot), from New Guinea and Mysol; 4. datante (Sharpe), from the islands of Waigiou and Batanta; 4. arwensis (Sharpe), from the Aru Islands and South-eastern New Guinea; 2. kaupi (Gould), from North-eastern Australia; and 4. insularis (Meyer), from North-eastern Australia. All these species, which are known to me personally, seem to be well founded ; but perhaps the handsomest of all is the subject of the present article, the male of which may be distinguished from all the other species of the genus 4rses by the orange collar round the hind neck and the light orange or Naples- yellow colour of the lower throat and breast. The female is more closely allied to those of the other - kinds of Arses, but has the back of an olive-brown, which contrasts strongly with the orange collar round the hind neck. It has a grey head like the females of 4. ¢elescophthalmus and A. batante, and also a white loral spot. These last characters distinguish it from the hen of 4. aruensis, which has a black head and an orange loral spot. The following descriptions of 4. insudaris are taken from Mr. Sharpe’s ‘ Catalogue of Birds :’— ‘* Adult male. General colour above glossy blue-black, the feathers of the crown of a velvety and some- what scaly nature; feathers of lower mantle tipped with white where they adjoin the scapulars, which, as well as the lower back, are also white with black bases; rump ashy grey, some of the feathers white at the ends ; upper tail-coverts and tail jet-black ; wings entirely black ; lores, feathers, round the eye, ear-coverts, and chin black; cheeks, throat, breast, and sides of neck pale orange, extending in a collar round the hind neck ; rest of under surface, as well as the under wing-coverts and axillaries, pure white ; small coverts along the edge of the wing black; thighs black. Total length 6:4 inches, culmen 0°65, wing 3°25, tail 2:75, tarsus 0°7.” The following note of the soft parts is from the ‘Proceedings’ as above cited :—‘ Eyes large; ring surrounding the eye large, and of a sky-blue ; bill and legs of a darker blue or violet.” The figures in the accompanying Plate represent the two sexes, kindly lent to me by Dr. Méyer, of the size of life. PIEZOREYNCEHUS BRODUEI, Ramsay. WHart del et lth. Minter, Bros.ump. PIEZORHYNCHUS BRODIEL. Brodie’s Flycatcher. Monarcha brodiei, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W. iv. p. 80 (1878).—Salvad. Ibis, 1880, p. 129.—Id. Orn. Papuasia, etc. iil. p. 26 (1880). Monarcha barbata, Ramsay, Nature, xx. p. 125 (1879). Monarcha barbatus, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. iv. p. 507 (1879). Tuts species belongs to a group of Flycatchers of the genus Piezorhynchus, which seems to be peculiar to the Solomon Islands, for its members do not agree with any of the Papuan or Moluccan forms of the genus. In the white under surface, black throat, and black ear-coverts the present bird approaches P. gwttulatus, which it also resembles in having white tips to the outer tail-feathers ; but its entirely black upper surface distinguishes it at once both from P. guttulatus and P. morotensis, which are grey above. The habitat of the present species is the Solomon Archipelago, where it was found by Mr. Cockerell in Guadalcanar and Lango. We describe the typical examples as follows :— Adult male. General colour above blue-black, the feathers of the head rather velvety in texture, and scale-like on the fore part of the crown; scapulars black ; least wing-coverts black, tipped with white where they adjoin the median series, which, with the greater coverts, are pure white with concealed black bases ; bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills black; tail-feathers black, the three outer feathers tipped with white ; lores, feathers below the eye, fore part of cheeks, and ear-coverts blue-black; a large patch of white extending from the hinder cheeks along the sides of the neck and united to the breast; throat black, the feathers long, rounded, and scale-like ; rest of under surface of body from the lower throat downwards pure white; thighs black, edged with white; axillaries and under wing-coverts white, with a black patch near the edge of the wing; quills blackish below, ashy along the edge of the inner web. Total length 5:7 inches, culmen 0°5, wing 2°95, tail 2°6, tarsus 0°75. Adult female. Different from the male. General colour above brown, with faintly indicated dusky centres to the feathers of the forehead and crown, which are denser and somewhat scaly in appearance ; lesser wing- coverts like the back; the median series white at base and pale fulvous brown at the ends, forming an indistinct wing-bar; greater series dark brown, edged externally with reddish brown; bastard wing and primary-coverts dark brown; quills dusky brown, externally of the same colour as the back; upper tail- coverts and tail-feathers black, the three outer ones broadly tipped with white, increasing in extent towards the outermost; lores dull whitish, obscured with dull brown tips to the feathers ; eyelid dusky slate-colour ; ear- coverts dusky grey; cheeks and sides of neck pale orange-rufous ; throat scaly in appearance, as in the male, and of a dusky grey colour washed with fulvous brown; fore neck and sides of breast pale orange-rufous, extending on to the flanks ; centre of breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts white, with a slight tinge of orange-buff’; thighs grey; under wing-coverts and axillaries hght orange-rufous ; quills dusky below, whitish along the edge of the inner web. ‘Total length 5:5 inches, culmen 0°6, wing 3:0, tail 2:7, tarsus 0°75. The typical specimens are represented in the Plate, of the size of life, together with a young male in intermediate plumage; and we have to thank Mr. E. P. Ramsay for the opportunity of describing and figuring these interesting specimens. [R. B. S.J .* et aly Fieeiaen pete PIEZOREYNCHUS BROWNI, Ramsay. W. Hart del et lith. ; Murdern Bros. ump. PIEZORHYNCHUS BROWNE, Ramsay. Brown’s Flycatcher. Monarcha (Piezorhynchus) browni, Ramsay, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1882, p. 711.—Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, ete. tii. App. p. 531 (1882). Tuovan closely resembling P. drodie: in general appearance, this species may be distinguished by the longer bill, the greater extent of white on the outer tail-feathers, and especially by the much greater extent of black on the throat, which reaches to the chest. The consequence of this is that the white patch on the hinder cheeks is entirely shut off from the white breast, whereas in P. brodiei the two join. The only specimen of P. browni that we have seen is the typical example from Marrabo, in the Solomon Islands, of which we give a description. We are indebted for the loan of this example to the kindness of our friend Mr. E. P. Ramsay. Adult male. General colour above blue-black ; lesser wing-coverts like the back, those adjoining the greater series broadly tipped with white; median wing-coverts white, the outer ones black at the base; greater coverts white, forming with the others a large wing-patch ; bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills black ; _ tail-feathers black, all but the two centre feathers tipped with white, increasing in extent greatly towards the outermost ; lores, feathers below the eye, and ear-coverts black; fore part of cheeks also black, the hinder cheeks white, extending in a large patch on to the sides of the neck; throat blue-black, the feathers scaly in appearance; fore neck and chest also black, united by the black sides of the neck and the mantle ; breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts white, the feathers adjoining the black throat having black bases ; thighs black ; under wing-coverts and axillaries white, with black bases to the feathers; coverts near the edge of the wing black ; quills black below. Total length 7 inches, culmen 0:7, wing 3°45, tail 3°3, tarsus 0°85. The Plate represents the adult male above described, in two positions, of the size of life. [R. B. S.J PIEZORENNCHUS RICHARDSI . Ramsay. W. Hart cel et lith. Minter Bros.ump. PIEZORHYNCHUS RICHARDSII, Ramsay. Richards’s Flycatcher. Piezorhynchus richardsii, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. 8. W. vi. p. 177 (1881). Pomarea richardsii, Tristram, Ibis, 1882, pp. 136, 142.—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genova, xviii. p. 422 (1882). Monarcha richardsti, Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, etc. iii., App. p. 529 (1882). Arter careful examination we incline to consider this species a true Piezorhynchus, as Mr. Ramsay has also determined it to be, and not a Pomarea, as Canon Tristram calls it, although in its style of coloration it very much resembles P. castaneiventris. It is distinguished from all the members of the genera Piezorhynchus and Pomarea by the remarkable white patch on the hinder crown and nape, which serves to characterize the species at once from all the other Flycatchers of the same group. The following is the description of an adult male shot in Rendova Island, in the Solomon group, by Lieut. Richards, R.N., who also met with it in the island of Ugi:— . Adult male. General colour above velvety black, with slight rufous edges to some of the upper tail-coverts ; wing-coverts like the back; greater coverts, bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills dull black ; tail-feathers black; lores, nasal plumes, forehead, and sinciput black, as well as the fore and hind part of the eyelid ; upper and lower part of eyelid as well as the vertex and entire nape pure white, extending on to the sides of the neck behind the ear-coverts ; ear-coverts, sides of face, cheeks, throat, and chest glossy black ; feathers of lower chest black, tipped with chestnut like the rest of the under surface of the body, which is entirely chestnut; thighs black; axillaries and under wing-coverts black, tipped with pale chestnut, with a patch of black near the edge of the wing; quills blackish below, ashy along the edge of the inner web; “bill horn-colour; feet black; iris black” (Richards). Total length 5-5 inches, culmen 0-7, wing 3-0, tail 2:55, tarsus 0°65. The specimen from which the above description was taken has been lent to us by Canon Tristram, in whose collection it now remains. The Plate represents the adult male of the natural size, and has been drawn from the same individual. LR. B. 8.] = oe * ‘. ‘ = . ’ - Loe: ae iat Pik PIEZORHYNCHUS CASTUS. W Hart, del et lith Walter, Imp. PIEZORHYNCHUS CASTUS. White-crowned Flycatcher. Monarcha castus, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1883, p. 53, pl. xii. fig. 1. Tus beautiful species of Flycatcher belongs to the pied section of the genus Monarcha (or of the genus Piezorhynchus, as set forth in the ‘ Catalogue of Birds’), which includes M. verticals, M. leucotis, M. loricatus, and other well-known Moluccan and Papuan species. It would appear to resemble MZ. verticahs very closely, and, like that species, has the ear-coverts, sides of neck, and summit of crown white, while the distribution of white on the wing-coverts is the same; but it would seem to be at once distinguished by the lines of white spots on the throat, and by having the inner secondaries edged with white instead of their being entirely pure white as in JZ. verticals. Only a single specimen was contained in Mr. Forbes’s collection, from which we gather that the species is rather rare in the part of the Tenimber Islands visited by him. The following is a description of the original type :— Adult male. General aspect above variegated; the back and mantle bluish black, somewhat mixed with grey on the lower back as it approaches the rump, the lower part of which, with the upper tail-coverts, is white; least wing-coverts black; entire median series and inner greater coverts white ; outer greater coverts black tipped with white ; bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills black, the secondaries narrowly fringed with white near the tip of the outer web; the innermost secondaries broadly edged with white externally; centre tail-feathers black, the next with a small triangular tip of white, which increases in extent towards the outer feathers until the external one is white for more than the terminal half; forehead, lores, and a narrow superciliary line extending backwards and forming a broad nuchal collar bluish black ; the crown of the head pure white encircled by the black aforesaid; feathers below the eye, cheeks, and throat black, which extends ina broad band and joins the black nuchal collar above mentioned, thus encircling the white ear-coverts, which form a conspicuous patch; the lower throat decorated with white tips to the feathers, forming a triple line ; sides of neck white, extending backwards so as to form a more or less distinct collar separating the nuchal band from the mantle ; remainder of under surface from the throat downwards pure white, excepting the hinder aspect of the thighs, which is black ; the white of the under surface slightly sullied with a grey shade; under wing-coverts and axillaries white, excepting the edge of the wing and the adjacent coverts, which are black; quills blackish below, edged with white along the inner web; “ bill lavender, tip black ; legs and feet lavender; iris reddish brown” (ZH. O. Forbes). Total length 5°75 inches, culmen 0°55, wing 2:7, tail 2°7, tarsus 0°75. | The Plate represents the typical specimen of the present species, of the natural size, in two positions. [R. B. 8.] PIEZORHYNCHUS VIDUA, Zstr. s \ TOS. Mintern Bi W. Hart del. et lith. PIEZORHYNCHUS VIDUA, Tristram. White-backed Pied Flycatcher. Piezorhynchus vidua, Tristram, Ibis, 1879, p. 439,—Salvad. Ibis, 1880, p. 130.—Tristram, Ibis, 1880, p. 246. Piezorhynchus melanocephalus, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W. iv. p. 468. Monarcha vidua, Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, etc. ii. p. 24 (1881). Tue original specimen of this Flycatcher was obtained by Lieut. Richards, R.N., at Makira Harbour, San Cristoval, in the Solomon group of islands, on the 3rd of October 1878; and on the 21st of May 1879 the same gentleman procured a second specimen in the same locality, and this was named by Mr. Ramsay Piezorhynchus melanocephalus. Count Salvadori expressed at one time an opinion that the present bird was identical with Mr. Ramsay’s Monarcha brodiei, but afterwards, in his great work on the birds of New Guinea, he came to the conclusion that they were really different species ; and this proves to be the case, now that we have examined the typical specimens of both birds. The present species belongs to a section of the genus Piezorhynchus which is very distinct from all the other groups of these Pied Flycatchers by reason of the white collar and white ramp. The only species with which it could be confounded is P. sguamudatus, which has similar white markings on the wings, but has the feathers of the fore neck edged with black, so as to present a scaled appearance. . The following is a description of the type specimen :— Adult male. General colour above blue-black on the mantle, upper back and scapulars ; lower back and rump white, as well as the upper tail-coverts ; lesser wing-coverts black, with ovate spots of white, the median and greater coverts white, with rather broad black edgings; bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills black, the inner secondaries with a broad mark of white towards the end of the outer web; tail-feathers black, the three outer feathers tipped with white, increasing in extent towards the outermost ; head blue-black, separated from the mantle by a broad collar of white, which also occupies the sides of the neck ; lores, feathers round the eye, cheeks, and ear-coverts black ; throat also black; remainder of the under surface of body pure white ; thighs black ; under tail-coverts white, as also the under wing-coverts and axillaries; the coverts near the edge of the wing black ; quills blackish below, with their extreme inner base white ; ‘“‘ feet ash-colour ; bill black ; iris grey” (Richards). Total length 5:8 inches, culmen 0°65, wing 2°95, tail, 2°9, tarsus 0°8. The figures in the Plate are drawn from the typical specimen, which has been very kindly lent to us by Canon Tristram. [R. B. S.J " ’ x 2 = < ; : . : . ; ‘ 1 f ¥ a . [ a 2 . . o - , \ ‘ ¥ + f ‘ - 3 a t - 3 ¥ y ‘6 ‘ - a ~ . 2 * : é FY ’ . * i ' \ = ’ i. ‘ , ‘ = A ‘ ‘ . ‘ , - S ‘ O by ’ ‘ ’ : : neg ‘ g \ y . t * i F < rs aa ‘ fi a. Re re ‘ ‘ : 4 j , + ’ 7 , 5 "4 ; in « - c . ' _ ‘ : + 2 ; - + . , 7 ‘ . 7 ; e 9 % es ’ * F i f 1 ; ri fi = y Sa ie Redeye Sas e« : a > a i er - W. Hart del. et lith, PIEZORHYNCHUS SQUAMULATUS, sv. Minterrn Bro's lap. | PIEZORHYNCHUS SQUAMULATU Ss, Tristram. Scaly-necked Pied Flycatcher. Piezorhynchus squamulatus, Tristram, Ibis, 1882, pp. 136, 142.—Ramsay, tom. cit. p. 472. Monarcha squamulatus, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. xviii. p. 423 (1882).—Id. Orn. Papuasia, etc. iii. App. p. 530 (1882). Tue island of Ugi in the Solomon group is the home of this Flycatcher, which belongs to the same section of the genus Piezorhynchus as P. vidua of Tristram, to which species it is closely allied. Like that bird it has a white collar round the neck, and the lower back and rump also white ; but it is easily recognized by the black and white mottlings on the fore neck, which are not present in the San Cristoval species. The subject of the present article was discovered by Lieut. Richards, R.N., who has brought to our knowledge so many fine species of birds from the Solomon Archipelago. It appears to be confined to the island of Ugi, whence Mr. Ramsay also informs us that he has received several specimens. The following is a description of the type specimen :— Adult male. General colour above blue-black, the crown of the head separated from the mantle by a broad white collar; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts white; lesser wing-coverts like the back ; median and greater coverts with large spots of white at the ends, margined with black in the median series, and extending to the edge of the feathers in the greater series, where the white is more largely developed, especially on the inner ones ; bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills black, the innermost secondaries with a triangular spot of white at the ends; tail-feathers black, with the two outer ones tipped with white (N.B. The tail is imperfect, and three white-tipped feathers may exist); lores, sides of face, ear- coverts, cheeks, and throat black; the fore neck white, all the feathers edged with black, producing a scaly appearance; remainder of under surface of body pure white; thighs black; under wing-coverts and axillaries white, the edge of the wing black, as well as the adjoining coverts; quills black below, white at extreme base of inner web; ‘bill and feet drab colour; iris light brown” (2tichards). ‘Total length 6 inches, culmen 0°5, wing 3:1, tail 2°8, tarsus 0°8. We are again indebted to our friend Canon Tristram for the opportunity of figuring and describing this interesting species in the present work. The Plate represents the male bird of the natural size, and is drawn from the original specimen, which, as far as this country is concerned, still remains unique in Canon Tristram’s collection. [R. B. 8] * A ‘i - = rs i 7 ae i Eas ae at! + eee a @ s - iS ‘ ’ aly Le - ae = xh fs Say i tet . } ) a :, - » ‘ : ‘ io é F ‘ ' p ix : oe # a Ge sauce on 7a - “” obi ca oh f - wala i. te cimaths At oral * 5 = oj at . = a ao Pw Me be : Eee A pie 5 ete 3) ot 2.) ST og re Me Rs Be, eel, Ot en: Se o 7 7 ’ 7 / mi, — A, m pe 7 Ly i = i ood - : oF 4 7 a ee ii : : ' cat | 7 ss Ci i i 5 i Reg aes chs tae Ae ee See Rane ae ae ; i = ' “er a, iis on = oa a is ne ome es igs “ 7 he i ee ee 7 A “agit ee. 5 La! ta ULL bod ate ce ee ae Poptart ies ‘ Ew b =, “ a 3 as ¢ - i 3 # Ep ge 7" “ie i = " : “Ln Px 7 jl 2 ’ . ie ty a is wrre i | 5) * ft Z Pies aie LT at) a ari es ; ek Pie yo © cts aps : ts Sg a ; . SL cs : . w b = = : D s — 0 : is a S N ea = = : 3 ‘ 2 s y W PIEZORHYNCHUS MEDIUS, Sharpe. Coppinger’s Flycatcher. Piezorhynchus medius, Sharpe, Rep. Zool. Coll. Voy. H.MLS. * Alert,’ p. 14 (1884). Tue specimen from which the present species was characterized was obtained during the voyage of the surveying-ship ‘ Alert,’ by Dr. Coppinger, the naturalist attached to the expedition. He procured a male at Port Molle, in Queensland, in the month of May 1888; and an examination of the individual in question induced us to reconsider the relations of the species of Prezorhynchus, to which it is allied. Writing in the year 1879, we had recognized four species of this particular group of Flycatchers, viz. P. dernsteim from the Island of Salwati, P. nigrimentum from Amboyna and Goram, P. trivirgatus from Timor, and P. gould from North-eastern Australia. The latter species had previously been united with P. érivirgatus, but was separated in 1860 by the late Mr. G. R. Gray ; and in writing our account of the ‘Alert’ collections we acknowledged our error in uniting with it P. albiventris of Gould. Dr. E. P. Ramsay, in his latest list (1888) of the Birds of Australia, gives the habitat of P. gould as from Cape York to the Wide-Bay district of Eastern Australia, as far as the Richmond and Clarence Rivers, to New South Wales. P. albiventris is said to occur only in the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Cape York district, probably extending to Rockingham Bay. He has apparently overlooked our description of P. medius, which is closely allied to P. albiventris, and, like that species, has the upper tail-coverts black ; but differs from it in having the sides of the body orange-rufous instead of white. fae gouldi has the sides of the body orange-rufous as in P. medius, but has the upper tail-coverts grey. No notes on the habits of P. medius have yet been recorded; but they are doubtless exactly the same as those of the allied Australian Flycatchers, described by Mr. Gould. Dr. Coppinger describes the soft parts as follows :— Iris black ; bill light grey; legs and feet dark.” The figures in the Plate are taken from the typical specimen in the British Museum, and represent two male birds of the size of life. [R. B. S.J a 7 crm vee PLEZORAYNCHUS AXTLLARIS . W. Hart del. et lith. Mintern Bros. imp. PIEZORHYNCHUS AXILLARIS. White-tufted Flycatcher. Monarcha awillaris, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. vii. p. 291 (1875), xiv. p. 495 (1879).—Id. Orn. Papuasia e delle Molucche, ii. p. 30 (1881). Piezorhynchus acillaris, Sharpe, Cat. Birds in Brit. Mus. iv. p. 426 (1879). Tus plain-coloured but elegant Flycatcher is easily distinguished from all the members of the genus Piezorhynchus by its pure white axillaries, which contrast strongly with the general black plumage, so that it forms a distinct section of the genus to which it belongs. It is apparently a very local species ; for, as far as is known at present, it is an inhabitant only of the Arfak Mountains in North-western New Guinea, where Mr. Bruijn’s hunters procured an adult female in May and a young female in June, while the type specimen was obtained by Dr. Beccari in July, at Profi, in the Arfak Mountains, at a height of 3400 feet. No other travellers appear to have met with the species ; but Mr. Bruijn sent a few specimens to the Leyden Museum, one of which Professor Schlegel allowed us to have for the British Museum. The following descriptions are taken from the typical adult males and the young female specimen in the Genoa Museum. They were examined by us during Count Salvadori’s visit to England, when he kindly allowed us to take descriptions of them for the purposes of the British Museum ‘ Catalogue of Birds’ :— Adult male. General colour above and below glossy blue-black ; wing-coverts blackish, edged with glossy blue-black, like the back ; tail black ; under wing-coverts and axillaries pure white, the latter forming a conspicuous patch on each side of the breast. Total length 5°7 inches, culmen 0°5, wing 3:2, tail 2°95, tarsus 0°75. Female (not quite adult). Differs from the male in being dark slate-colour above and below, with a slight bluish gloss, the breast brown (apparently remains of young plumage) ; wing brownish black ; tail black. ‘Total length 6 inches, wing 3:1, tail 2:9, tarsus 0:7. The figures in the Plate are of the size of life, and are drawn from the male specimen in the British Museum. [R. B. S.J * ‘ y ‘ ‘ ‘ e ‘ te * WHart del, et hth, MONARCHA PERIOPHTHALMICUS, Shape. Walter tmp. “ MONARCHA PERIOPHTHALMICUS, Sharpe. Black-Spectacled Flycatcher. Monarcha pertophthalmicus, Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc. (Zool.) vol. xvi. p. 318 (1882). Aux the members of the genus Monarcha are birds of very elegant coloration ; and the present species is very delicately coloured. It belongs to the section of the genus with black wings and tail, to which Monarcha canescens and M. frater also appertain. It is, indeed, very closely allied to the last-named bird, the type of which is now in the Civic Museum of Genoa, but a full description of which will be found in the British- Museum ‘Catalogue of Birds’ by Mr. Sharpe, and also in Count Salvadori’s ‘ Ornitologia della Papuasia.’ In both these works the forehead and chin are spoken of as black, while the region round the eye is white. Although I have not been able to compare the type of MZ. periophthalmicus with that of AZ. frater, yet I have very little doubt as to its distinctness; for it has the fore part of the crown black, as well as the forehead, while the entire region of the eye is also black. The following is a copy of the full description contributed by Mr. Sharpe to the ‘ Journal of the Linnean Society’ im a paper read by him on the 6th of April, 1882 :— . “¢ General colour above pearly grey, a little darker on the upper tail-coverts, which have concealed black bases ; lesser and inner median and greater coverts pearly grey like the back ; bastard wing, primary-coverts, as well as the outer median and greater series and the quills, black, only the innermost secondaries externally pearly grey; tail-feathers black; forehead and sinciput, lores, fore part of cheeks, feathers below the eye and a broad ring round the eye black; chin and upper throat black ; lower throat, fore neck, and chest, pearly grey, as also the sides of the neck; remainder of under surface of body, as well as the thighs and under tail-coverts and the axillaries and under wing-coverts, cinnamon-buff; quills blackish below. Total length 5:5 inches, culmen 0°75, wing 3:4, tail 2°75, tarsus 0°75.” The figure in the Plate is drawn from one of the typical specimens in the British Museum. It represents a male bird of the natural size. [R. B. S.] MONARCHA KORDENSIS, Meer. J Gold & W Hart del et lithe. Walter Imp. MONARCHA KORDENSIS, Meyer. Mysore Yellow Flycatcher. Monarcha kordensis, Meyer, Sitzungsberichte der k. Akad. Wissensch. Wien, Band lxix. p. 202 (1874). In introducing this fine new bird to my readers, I cannot do better than quote Dr. Meyer’s own words on the subject, as the differences between this bird and JZ. melanonota are very clearly expressed by him. In the above-mentioned paper, published in the ‘ Proceedings’ of the Vienna Academy, he writes as follows :—‘‘I procured near the village of Kordo on the island of Mysore, in the north of Geelvink’s Bay, eight specimens of a Monarcha which is closely related to M. chrysomela (i. e. M. melanonota, Scl.) of New Guinea, a species of which I also got nine specimens from different localities (Nappau, Passim, Andai, and Puta on the Arfak Mountains); but nevertheless the Kordo specimen is easily to be distinguished. “IM. kordensis is not yellow as is JZ. chrysomela auct., but is orange-coloured ; and the head, which in JZ. chrysomela has an orange hue only, bas a very distinct fiery tinge in the species from the neighbouring island. Further, only the upper back is black, and not the whole back, as in JZ. chrysomela; so that it might be described as follows—‘ upper parts orange, with a black patch on the uppper mantle.’ Otherwise the colours are distributed as in MZ. chrysomela. «The female of MM. kordensis differs in a similar conspicuous way from the female of M. chrysomela, the underparts being orange, nearly as bright as in the male, and not brownish yellow as in AZ. chrysomela. “The throat is whitish, the region of the throat deep orange ; the head is darker orange, with a brownish hue, not olive-coloured as in JZ. chrysomela; upper parts olive-coloured with an orange gloss ; wing-coverts with broad yellow tips. Total length 6:4 inches ; culmen 0°5, wing 3:3, tail 2°75. A young male differs from the female only in having some feathers of the throat deep black.” But if JZ. kordensis differs trom MM. melanonota, as 1 freely confess it does, it is so closely allied to the true M. chrysomela from New Ireland that Dr. Cabanis and Reichenow considered the two species to be identi- cal (cf. J. f. O. 1876, p. 320). Dr. Sclater, however, informs me that a comparison of the birds from these two localities induces him to consider them distinct, as JZ kordensis has the black colour more circumscribed on the back and extending further down the throat ; the black colour also narrowly surrounds the eye, which is not the case in JZ. chrysomela. I an indebted to the kindness of my friend Dr. Meyer for the loan of one of the typical specimens of his M. kordensis, of which the following is a description :— Adult male. Similar to JZ. melanonota, but distinguished at a glance by its more yellow back, the seapulars being yellow like the wing-coverts; the black patch in the middle of the back is confined to the mantle ; the secondaries are much more broadly bordered with yellow, the latter colour being much richer and in- clining to fiery orange on the head and neck; the white spot below the front of the eye very small. Total length 5:9 inches; culmen 0°6, wing 2:9, tail 2°5, tarsus 0°75. The figures in the Plate represent a pair of this species of the natural’ size. . a. o ay - i. x ee: = a i aD Way ah — ae ao 4 i “de ary + ae oy MONARCHA MELANONOTA, Sclater. J Gould & W Hart del et kth. Walter Lnp MONARCHA MELANONOTA, Selater. Papuan Yellow Flycatcher. Monarcha chrysomela auct., ex Nova Guinea. Arses chrysomela, Gray, Handl. B. no. 4805 (1869, nec Garn.). Dr. Sclater has brought to my notice the fact that this species, usually called JZ. chrysomela by authors, 1s not the true J. chrysomela of Garnot, which is from New Ireland. It will be seen that the present bird, which is an inhabitant of New Guinea and Mysol, is distinguished by the greater extent of the black on the back, and by other characters mentioned by Dr. Meyer. I have not had a sufficient series for com- parison; but I question whether J melanonota can really be separated specifically from 1%. aruensis of Salvadori (Ann. Mus. Civic. Genova, vi. p. 309), and in the case of their identity the latter name will have précedence. Nothing has been recorded concerning the habits of this species, which, by reason of its brilliant coloration, is one of the most beautiful of all Flycatchers. I add a full description of the sexes of this species, which has been figured from some of Dr. Meyer’s specimens. He procured it on the mainland of New Guinea, at Nappau, Passim, Andai, and Puta. I have a specimen in my collection obtained by Mr. Hoedt at Waigaama in Mysol. Adult male. Back, from the nape to the rump, purplish black; entire head and nape, sides of neck, and hinder part of ear-coverts golden yellow, deepening to orange on the crown; a narrow frontal line, lores, fore part of ear-coverts, and entire throat glossy purplish black; under the eye a spot of white feathers ; round the eye a ring of purplish black plumes, yellow where they adjoin the yellow of the ear-coverts ; least and median series of wing-coverts yellow; primary-coverts and greater series black, the innermost of the latter yellow, some of the outer greater coverts also slightly tipped with yellow; quills purplish black, the innermost secondaries broadly edged with yellow ; rump and upper tail-coverts bright yellow ; tail black, with slight indications of a tiny yellow tip ; under surface of body, from the fore neck downwards, brilliant yellow ; thighs black ; under wing-coverts yellow, the lower ones whiter ; quills blackish below, white along the inner webs. Adult female. General colour above olive-green, rather yellower on the head; wing-coverts and quills brown, externally edged with the same olive-green as the back; tail-feathers light brown, washed with olive- green on both webs ; lores dull whitish, tipped with dusky ; in front of the lower part of the eye a white spot; sides of face olive-green like the back; entire under surface of body yellow, more dingy on the throat, the chin somewhat dusky ; under wing-coverts pale yellow; quills light brown below, edged with fulvous brown along the inner webs; “ bill bluish, the tip black; feet lead-colour ; iris dark ” (/Vallace). The principal figures in the accompanying Plate are of life-size. é ] . be : L 7 wa TY ptt : ae eee el 7 7115 ae Me ey mi! ets i ee] Pigee ; 5 cf Cee - 7 Ao i pa - } = _ : = . = Ri ‘as a” “= = i ; 1 ii : i i : we al eee * i 7 x a ' ' bd 2 - Oi Vis bo ] - 7 _ i i i 7 ; a ks ; Aan ba = ” rs ° ae er s = ——- Nae Lee : = ' * = ? ' weet | . = ra af " m 6G y a ‘ a ay = f a : : F's petal - , Lo ' A Ge >| a ; ly eee ; i am = f ‘ aa Teal ha ‘fat onl? i mala bi . ‘ 7 irs | - - Pee = a “ad E ce! © i S ‘ A aul i “ — 7 = i ms if Au et utes, igs = J i. : * , Ze ori 4 7 hs os oe eT S ~ “i ! 1 a” Aha) ow 7 rs, oe J. Gould £ WHart, ded ct lith. PELTOPS BLACNVILLII. PELTOPS BLAINVILLEIL. Broad-billed Flycatcher. Eurylaimus Blainvillei, Garnot, Voy. Coquille, i. p. 595, pl. 19.—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 160. Peltops Blainvillii, Wagler.—Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 66.—Bp. Consp. i. p. 169.—Reich. Handb. Merop. p. 59, pl. 440. fizs, 3211, 3212.—Scl. Journ. Linn. Soc. vol. ii. (1858) p. 160.—Gray, Cat. Mamm. &c. N. Guin. p. 19.—Id. P.Z.S. 1861, p. 433.—Wall. P. Z.5. 1862, p. 165.—Gray, Hand-l. B. i. p. 319.—Scl. Ibis, 1872, p. 177.—Id. P. Z.S. 1873, p. 696. Erolla Blaimviller, Less. Traité, p. 260. Platysomus Blainvillei, Swains. Classif. B. ii. p. 261. Tuts curious form of Flycatcher is only found in New Guinea and Mysol, Von Rosenberg having discovered it in the latter island. The original specimen was procured at Dorey in New Guinea; and Mr. Wallace also met with it in the north-western part of the same island, while Signor d’Albertis shot an example at Sorong. So rare has the species always been in collections, that a special examination of its structure has always been difficult ; thus the bird has until lately been placed with the Broad-bills (Eurylemidz). Dr. Sclater was the first to recognize the true affinities of the genus; and I cannot do better than quote his observations on the subject :— | ‘The genus Peltops, containing the single species P. Blainvillii of New Guinea, has been usually referred to the Eurylemine, or Broad-bills, and the group thus formed united in the same family with the Rollers (Coraciade), the Todies (Todide), and the Motmots (Momotide), or, at all events, placed in their immediate neighbourhood. Several errors are, in my opinion, embraced in this classification. ‘In the first place, Peltops has nothing whatever to do with the Euryleemide, being a truly Muscicapine form allied to Monarcha and Macherirhynchus, as the most casual examination of its structure at once shows. The mistake, no doubt, comes from the somewhat exaggerated form of the bill in Peltops, and from its general coloration resembling that of Cymbirhynchus. The rarity of Peltops has prevented the error from being discovered. On examining the wing of Pe/éops it will be seen that the first primary is short or ‘spurious ’ (as in all the true Oscines) when it exists at all. In Cymbirhynchus there are ten fully formed primaries. There is also a conspicuous difference in the size of the feet in the two forms, these organs bemg strong and thick in Cymdirhynchus, while they are feeble and weak in Pe/tops, as in other Muscicapide. The relegation of Pe/toys to the Muscicapide also removes an anomaly in geographical distribution, it being obviously strange that no otherwise exclusively Indo-Malayan type, such as the Eurylemidz, should have a single outlier in New Guinea.” General colour, both above and below, glossy black, including the wings and tail; ear-coverts and a patch on the interscapulary region white; rump, vent, upper and under tail-coverts crimson. ‘Total length 7 inches, culmen 0:95, wing 3:9, tail 3:4, tarsus 0°6. My Plate is drawn from Signor d’Albertis’s Sorong specimen, which he kindly lent me when in London. The figure is life-size. zs Pa en =! POMAREA IRUFOCASTANIEA . W Hart del et: lith. Muntern Bros.unp. POMAREA RUFOCASTANEA. Rufous-and-Chestnut Flycatcher. Monarcha rufocastanea, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. 5. Wales, iv. pp. 79, 313 (1879).—Salvad. Ibis, 1880, p. 129. Monarcha rufocastaneus, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. xiv. p. 508 (1879). Pomarea castaneiventris, Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, etc. ii. p. 11 (1881, pt.). Turs species resembles very closely Pomarea castaneiventris of the Solomon group of islands, and to the latter bird it has been united by Count Salvadori. Our own idea was also that these two species were identical, judging from Mr. Ramsay’s description; but the latter gentleman, during his visit to England as Commis- sioner for New South Wales to the International Fisheries Exhibition, brought over the types of his Monarcha rufocastanea, and we are enabled to say that they are not the same species. On comparing males it is evident that P. rufocastanea is a smaller bird, is duller and more slaty black above and lighter chestnut below. The axillaries are entirely bay-coloured like the breast, whereas in P. castaneiventris the axillavies have distinct blackish bases and are rufous for not quite the terminal half. The females of the two species differ much more than the males. That of MZ. rufocastanea, besides being a much paler bird, is distinguished at once by its light grey throat, this being black in P. castaneweniris. The following are the descriptions of the typical specimens :— Adult male (type of species). General colour above slaty black with a purplish-blue gloss, the hinder neck and mantle more ashy; lesser and median wing-coverts like the back; greater coverts, bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills blackish brown, with slight remains of lighter brown edgings; tail-feathers blue- black ; lores and crown of head like the back ; ear-coverts also slaty black, surmounted by a faint indication of an iron-grey streak from above the fore part of the eye to about the end of the ear-coverts ; feathers below the eye and cheeks deeper black, with a slight wash of ashy grey; sides of neck and entire throat dull cindery grey; fore neck and rest of \underparts clear chestnut or bay, including the thighs and under tail-coverts ; axillaries also bay-coloured like the breast; the under wing-coverts bay, except near the edge of the wing, where they are either dull ashy or are bay with ashy bases. Total length 5:3 inches, culmen 0°65, wing 2°75, tail 2°5, tarsus 0-7. (Mus. Austr.) Adult female. Different from the male. Above slaty grey, rather lighter on the crown of the head ; lesser and median wing-coverts like the back ; greater coverts, bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills brown, with narrow reddish-brown margins; tail-feathers dingy blackish brown; sides of crown paler grey than the top of the head, which is like the back ; eyelid dusky slate-colour ; feathers below the eye hoary whitish; ear- coverts, sides of face, and cheeks ashy grey, as also the sides of the neck, which are somewhat washed with rufous ; throat slaty grey, the lower part and the fore neck washed with rufous, and gradually deepening into the rich bay of the breast and underparts; thighs ashy, washed with rufous; axillaries and under wing- coverts slaty grey, the former edged with rufous near the ends. Total length 5:5 inches, culmen 0:65, wing 3:0, tail 2:7, tarsus 0°7. The two sexes are figured of the natural size, the birds being drawn from the typical examples, for the loan of which we are indebted to Mr. E. P. Ramsay. [R. B. S.] eat a inf te Ra ' » ae oat, rhe! mal POMAREA CASTANEIOVENTIRIES . . W. Hart. del. et lith. Mintern. Bros.omp. POMAREA CASTANEIVENTRIS. Chestnut-bellied Flycatcher. Monarcha castaneiventris, Verr. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1858, p. 304.—Gray, Birds Trop. Isl. of the Pacific Ocean, p. 19 (1859).—Id. Hand-list of Birds, i. p. 320, no. 4793 (1869).—Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, ete. ili. App. p. 529 (1882). . Pomarea, castaneiventris, Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. iv. p. 435, pl. xi. fig. 2 (1879).—Tristr. Ibis, 1879, p. 439. Pomarea? castaneiventris, Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, etc. il. p. 11 (1881). Txovuen described by M. Verreaux in 1858, the real home of the present species has only recently been ascertained for certain. For many years its habitat was recorded as ‘‘ Oceania;” but so unlike was it to any Oceanic species of Flycatcher, that, in the ‘ Catalogue of Birds,’ the latter locality was regarded as doubtful. Since that book was written, however, the bird has been met with in the Solomon Islands, thus fixing its habitat beyond a doubt. Capt. Richards procured it at Makira Harbour in San Cristoval, and Mr. Ramsay has received it from his collectors in the Solomon Islands. ‘The latter gentleman has also described a nearly allied species as P. rufocastanea, which was considered by Count Salvadori to be identical with P. castaneiventris ; but after comparing the two species, we consider them to be separable, and our readers will find the distinguishing characters noted under the heading of the former bird. The following is a copy of the description of the adult male given in the ‘ Catalogue of Birds,’ and drawn up from the type in the British Museum :-— “General colour above glossy black; wings black, the quills somewhat browner ; tail black; sides of face, sides of neck, throat, and fore neck glossy black like the upper surface; remainder of under surface of body chestnut ; under wing-coverts and axillaries chestnut, those near the edge of the wing black; quills ashy black below, whitish along the edge of the inner web. Total length 7 inches, culmen 0:7, wing 3:6, tail 3, tarsus 0:75.” The female differs from the male in being iron-grey instead of purplish black ; the breast and abdomen are dark chestnut as in the male, but the throat is iron-grey. The figures in the Plate are drawn from a pair of birds lent to us by Mr. E. P. Ramsay; they represent a male and female of the natural size. [R. B. S.J ete Riva « ® oatae a POMAIREA UGIENSIES, Ramsay. Minter Bros. anp. Vv. W Hart del et POMAREA UGIENSIS, Ramsay. Uei-I sland Flycatcher. « Pomarea (Monarcha) ugiensis, Ramsay, Journ. Linn. Soc., Zool. xvi. p. 128 (1881); Reichenow & Schalow, J. f, O. 1882, p. 224. Pomarea ugiensis, Tristram, Ibis, 1882, pp. 136-142; Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genov. xviii. p. 442 (1882). Monarcha ugiensis, Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, etc. il. p. 531 (1882). Tuts species was discovered by the Rev. George Brown in the island of Ugi, and Captain Richards afterwards met with it in the same island, to which it is probably confined. It is a very large species, and exceeds in size both P. castaneiventris of San Christoval and P. nigra of the Society and Marquesas Islands; its uniform glossy black plumage, which is peculiar to both sexes, is also a striking characteristic of the species. Count Salvadori would refer it to the genus Monarcha; but after carefully examining the specimens in the British Museum, we believe that its place is in the genus Pomarea, where it has been placed by Mr. Ramsay and Canon Tristram. The following is a description of the typical specimen, which has been lent to us by Mr. Ramsay :— Adult female (type of species). General colour above glossy blue-black ; lesser and median wing-coverts black, edged with the same colour as the back; greater. coverts, bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills black, slightly and almost imperceptibly washed with blue-black on the outer web; tail-feathers glossy black, with dusky cross markings under certain lights ; lores and base of forehead velvety black; sides of face and ear-coverts, cheeks and under surface of body glossy blue-black, duller black in the centre of the abdomen ; “bill blue-black, whitish on the tips and margins of the mandibles; legs and feet black ” (Brown). Total length 7 inches, culmen 0°8, wing 3°5, tail 3°15, tarsus 0°85. In the Plate are given two representations of this species, of about the natural size, in different positions ; the figures are drawn from the type specimen above described. [R. B. 8.] 7 Whe s+ set ' FE en, i tony a iS ia ‘ ib ie vast ~ a ie ee abt ie Gath i a lay aia i i | | i] | il ll eee Sa a bareeeeres aor Soraren Sere jarani Sees aaa : ine Sines Sk eer SSS Ses eae