RHAMPHOCHARIS CRASSIROSTRIS, Sawwaa.

Stout-billed Flower-pecker.

Rhamphocharis crassirostris, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. vil. p. 943 (1875).—-Id. op. cit. xvi. p. 69 (1880).—
Id. Orn. Papuasia e delle Molucche, ii. p. 288 (1881).—Sharpe, Cat. Birds in Brit. Mus. x. p. 84
(1885).

 

Tus is at once one of the most curious and at the same time one of the most distinct of the Meliphagine
Flower-peckers, by which term we mean those aberrant forms which inhabit New Guinea, and which connect
the family Dice@ide with the Honey-eaters er Melphagide. It is difficult to say whether such genera as
Rhamphocharis and its allies should be placed with the last-named family or at the end of the Dicerde, near
the genera A/elanocharis and Pristorhamphus. This is the view adopted by us in the ‘ Catalogue of Birds ;’
but as one of the principal characters of the Diceide is the absence of a bastard-primary, and Rhamphocharis
and the allied genera have a very distinct one, it is quite possible that in future re-arrangements of the
family they may be left out of the Diceide and joined to the Meliphagide. In any case the genus
Rhamphocharis must be placed near to Pristorhamphus, from which it differs in the form of bill and also in
having the wing longer than the tail.

The present species was discovered by Dr. Beccari in the Arfak Mountains in North-western New Guinea ;
and the following descriptions, copied from the ‘Catalogue of Birds,’ are taken from the typical specimens,
kindly lent to us by the Marquis Doria :—

«« 4dult male (type of species). General colour above olive-green, glossed with oil-green ; wing-coverts like
the back; greater wing-coverts, bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills dusky brown, edged with olive-
green, brighter on the quills; upper tail-coverts dusky, washed with olive-green; tail-feathers blackish,
edged with olive-green; lores olive dusky ; edge of eyelid white; ear-coverts and cheeks light ashy, with
the upper parts of the ear-coverts dusky olive; entire under surface of body pearly grey, slightly washed
with pale yellow ; thighs and under tail-coverts a little darker ashy; axillaries pale yellow ; wings white,
with a pale yellow wash ; quills dusky, ashy grey along the edge of the inner web. Total length 4°6 inches,
culmen 0°6, wing 2°6, tail 1:76, tarsus 0°7.

«© Adult female. General colour above olive-brown, rather greener on the lower back, ramp, and upper tail-
coverts, the head and back being spotted with minute tips of yellowish white on the feathers; the scapulars
olive-brown like the back, similarly tipped with tiny white spots; wing-coverts like the back, with white
spots at the end; the greater coverts, bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills dusky brown, edged with
olive-green, the inner greater coverts with a whitish spot at the ends, the margins of the primaries
yellower ; tail-feathers blackish, edged with olive-green, with a tiny white spot at the end of the inner web,
increasing gradually in extent and forming a well-marked spot on the outer tail-feathers; an indistinct
eyebrow of pale olive-brown, lores dusky ; eyelid whity brown ; ear-coverts dull olive-brown, streaked with
dull white; cheeks brown, mottled with white spots; under surface of body yellowish white, mottled all
over with dusky-brown centres to the feathers, smaller on the throat and nearly obsolete on the abdomen ;
thighs ashy tinged with yellow ; under tail-coverts yellowish white with dusky centres, the feathers mottled
like the breast ; axillaries pale yellow; under wing-coverts white slightly washed with yellow, and mottled
with dark-brown bases to the feathers ; quills dusky below, greyish white along the edge of the inner web.
Total length 4:9 inches, culmen 0°6, wing 2°85, tail 1-85, tarsus 0°75.”

The Plate represents a male and female of the natural size, and the figures have been drawn from the same
pair of birds described above, lent to us by the Marquis Doria,

[R. B. 8]

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