G!.
ALURGDUS MELANOCEPHALys

Black-naped Cat-bird.

Ramsay,

Aluredus melanocephalus, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W. viii. p. 25 (1883) —Sal eae
Finsch u. Meyer, Zeitschr. ges. Orn. ii. p. 394 (1885).—Tid. Ibis, 1886, p- 258 Hane Bull Si
Zool. France, 1886, p. 511.—Sharpe, in Gould’s Birds of New Guinea, i. pl. 49 sss) cn ee
Or. Papuasia, ii. p. 166 (1890).—Sharpe, Bull. Brit, Orn. Club, iv. p. xiv (1894),—Salvad. Any.
Mus. Civ. Genov. (2) xvi. p. 114 (1896).

vad. Ibis, 189.

=e EE

Tuis is the representative of Lluredus melanotis in South-eastern New Guinea, whe

re it inbabits the Owen
anley Mountains. It has occurred in Mr. Goldie’s collections from the A
tanley [

strolabe Range, and the ]
Carl Hunstein procured specimens in the Horse-shoe Range, while Dr. H. O. Forbe

Sogeri District, and Dr. Loria at Moroka.
Ai. melanocephalus belongs to the same section of t]

ate
S met with it in the

le genus Aluredus as AE, melanotis and 42. arfakiarus,
and.is very closely allied to the former, from which it differs in the greate
the face, and in the chin, lores, and the fore part of cheeks being black. The crown of the head is blacker, and
the ovate spots of buff are fewer in number and consequently much more distinct.

The breast and abdomen
are of a deeper ochre colour, and the dusky margins to the feathers are much less pronounced. The light spots

on the wing-coverts are apparently variable in extent, and are sometimes absent altogether. Thus Dr. Meyer
described the wing-coverts as uniform, and Count Salvadori has drawn attention to this apparent discrepaney
between Dr. Meyer’s statement and the bird figured by me in Gould’s ‘Birds of New Guinea.’ He has,
however, recently found the same differences in specimens sent by Dr. Loria, and in the two examples in
the British Museum the size of the spots on the wing-coverts varies considerably. The fact that my
description and figure given in the above-mentioned work did not entirely correspond, as Count Salvadori
has pointed out, is due to the fact that the specimen figured (from Dr. Forbes’s collection) is not the one
described in the text, which is from Hunstein’s collection.

Adult male. General colour above grass-green, the upper tail-coverts slightly washed with lighter green ;
the upper mantle varied with ovate spots of ochreous buff in the centre of the feathers ; wing-coverts like
the back, the median and greater coverts and the bastard-wing faintly tipped with ashy ochreous buff;
primary-coverts and quills externally green like the back, the primaries washed with bluish on the outer ue
the secondaries tipped with ochreous white, less distinct on the primaries; tail-feathers dark green on
the outer web, black internally, all the feathers tipped with white, increasing in extent towards the outer
ones; crown of head black, aah ovate spots of ochreous buff, smaller on the ee and nape, _ an
being almost entirely black; hind-neck ochreous buff, the feathers margined with mee =
surmounted by a line of ochreous-buff-spotted feathers ; feathers od aie ao ear-coverts - : F : ae
of buff-spotted feathers below the eye; behind the ear-coverts a line of whitish down i fe a black
fore part of cheeks black, as well as the chin ; throat and sides of oe ochreous buff, a — oe
edges to the feathers; fore-neck and remainder of under surface body ee ae ae
edges on the feathers of the chest; the breast and abdomen more uniform ; all the i ce i | a ie
distinct. white shaft-lines ; sides of body and flanks like the breast, and washed with a a a
greenish ; under tail-coverts like the abdomen, with white shaft-lines ; a ee ee ne ed
tipped with whitish ; quills below dusky, ashy along the inner one ae ne 7.
green; iris hazel ” (L. Loria). Total length 11-5 inches, culmen on ae es i as cae collected by

The figure in the Plate represents an adult male of the natural size, drawn from a §]

rer O, Forbes,

r amount of black on the sides of