UROCHARIS LONGICAUDA.

Long-tailed Flower-pecker.

Melanocharis longicauda, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genoy. vii. p. 942 (1875).—Id. op. cit. x. 144 (1877).—
Id. op. cit. xi. p. 333 (1878).

Urocharis longicauda, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. xvi. p. 69 (1880).—Id. Orn. Papuasia e delle Molucche,
ii. p. 286 (1881).—Sharpe, Cat. Birds in Brit. Mus. x. p. 79 (1885).

 

As Count Salvadori has pointed out, the present species is intermediate in character between Melanocharis aud
Pristorhamphus, and he therefore very rightly made it the type of a new genus. From Pristorhamphus it is
distinguished by the notch on the second primary, and from AZedanocharis it differs in the form of the bill,
which is broader than it is high at the nostrils and has a sharp ridge to the culmen.

At present only three specimens of this bird have been sent from North-western New Guinea, and it would
appear to be confined to the Arfak Mountains, where it was met with by D’Albertis and Beccari as well as
by Mr. Bruijn’s bunters. A full account of these specimens is given by Count Salvadori in his great work on
the birds of New Guinea, and we here reproduce the descriptions taken from the typical examples and
published in the British Museum ‘ Catalogue of Birds.’

‘« Adult male (type of species). General colour above glossy steel-black, the feathers with ashy-grey bases,
which show rather distinctly on the ramp; lesser and median wing-coverts like the back; greater coverts,
bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills black, edged with steel-black like the back, less distinctly on the
primaries ; tail-feathers black, slightly glossed on the margins with steel-blue, the outer tail-feather white
for three quarters of the outer web; crown of head like the back ; eyelid also black ; lores and sides of face
dusky olive, blackish along the hinder margin of the ear-coverts ; throat and chest ashy olive, clearer olive-
yellowish on the breast and abdomen, the feathers in most cases margined with pale yellow; thighs dusky
olive; under tail-coverts dusky olive, with pale yellowish margins; axillaries pale yellow; under wing-coverts
silky white, washed with pale yellow; quills blackish below, ashy white along the edge of the inner web.
Total length 4:8 inches, culmen 0°5, wing 2°5, tail 2, tarsus 0°7.

© Adult female. Different from the male. General colour above olive-green, with an oily green gloss ;
wing-coverts like the back ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and primaries blackish, obsoletely edged with
olive-green like the back, the secondaries with broader olive-green margins like the greater wing-coverts ;
tail as in the male; head olive-green like the back, and with the same oily green gloss; eyelid and sides of
face ashy olive, the lores and cheeks ashy grey washed with olive ; under surface of body as in the male.
Total length 5:1 inches, culmen 0°45, wing 2°40, tail 2°2, tarsus 0°65.”

The Plate represents the adult male and female of the size of life, drawn from the type specimens kindly
lent to us by the Marquis Doria.

[R. B. S.]