DICHUM TRISTRAML, Sharpe.

Tristram’s Flower-pecker.

Diceum tristrami, Sharpe, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1883, p. 579.

 

Tus peculiarly coloured Flower-pecker was lent to us by Canon Tristram, and as we had every reason to
believe it to be hitherto undescribed, we attached to it our friend’s name in recognition of his many
services to ornithology. The species was discovered by Lieut. Richards in Makira Harbour, in San Cristoval,
one of the Solomon Islands.

It is not necessary to compare Tristram’s Flower-pecker with any other members of the genus Diceum,
for its style of colouring is quite unique, and does not ally it with any of the species known up to the present
time.

The following is a description of the type specimen, which is in Canon Tristram’s collection :—

Adult male. General colour above chocolate-brown, the mantle slightly streaked with a few hoary whitish
margins to the feathers ; wing-coverts darker chocolate-brown than the back ; bastard wing, primary-coverts,
and quills blackish brown, the inner secondaries chocolate-brown like the back; upper tail-coverts and tail
blackish brown, contrasting sharply with the back ; head brown, but mottled with blackish-brown centres to
the feathers, the plumes of the forehead and vertex margined with hoary whitish ; a line of feathers above the
eye and ear-coverts hoary white, the latter slightly mottled, with brown bases; lores, eyelid, fore part of
cheeks, and base of chin blackish ; hinder cheeks, throat, and fore neck hoary white, with brown bases to the
feathers ; sides of neck like the back ; centre of breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts pure white, the sides
of the body ashy ; sides of upper breast brown, with hoary whitish edges to the feathers ; axillaries and under
wing-coverts white ; quills dusky below, ashy whitish along the edge of the inner web; “bill black ; feet black ;
iris grey” (Richards). Total length 3°5 inches, culmen 0°45, wing 2°3, tail 1:15, tarsus 0°55. (Mus. H. B.
Tristram.)

The Plate represents the individual above described, of the natural size, in two positions.

[R. B. S.]

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