DICAAUM PECTORALE, mui. & sear.

Miller’s Flower-pecker.

Diceum pectorale, Mull, & Schl. Verh. Natuurl. Geschied. Land- en Volkenk. p. 162, note (1839-44).—Hartl. Rev.
Zool. 1846, p. 47.—Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 100 (1847).—Bp. Consp. Ay. i. p. 403 (1850).—Sclater, Proc
Linn. Soe. ii. p. 157 (1858).—Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858, p. 190.—Id. Cat. Mamm. ete. New Guinea,
pp. 22, 55 (1859).—Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, p. 434.—Rosenb. Nat. Tijdschr. Nederl. Ind. xxv. PEO
(1863).—Id. J. f. O. 1864, p. 123.—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p-. 163 (1865).—Meyer, Sitz. k. Akad. Wien,
Ixx. p. 120 (1874).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. xvi. p. 67 (1880).—Id. Orn. Papuasia e delle
Molucche, ii. p. 273 (1881).—Sharpe, Cat. Birds in Brit. Mus. x. p. 29 (1885).—Guillemard, Proc. Zool.
Soc. 1885, p. 639.

Diceum erythrothoraz, pt., Gray, Hand-list Birds, i. p. 115, no. 1427 (1869).—Rosenb. Malay Arch. p. 553
(1879).

 

As most of the Flower-peckers in the Malayan Archipelago are confined to a single island, the present species
must be considered to have rather a wide range, as it is not only found in North-western New Guinea, but
also in the adjoining islands of Salwati, Mysol, Waigiou, and Batanta.

It belongs to the olive-backed section of the genus Diceum, without any red on the rump oron the crown,
and with the head of the same colour as the back. Its nearest ally is D. @neum of the Sclomon Islands,
also figured in this work ; but D. pectorale differs from that species in having no grey on the breast below the
red spot, and it also has the breast dull olive like the flanks.

The species was first met with in New Guinea at Lobo Bay by Solomon Muller, and the localities recorded
by Count Salvadori in North-western New Guinea are numerous, as Dr. Meyer, Dr. Beccari, and Mr. Bruyn
have all procured it during their travels in the Arfak Mountains and their vicinity. Mr. Wallace procured
specimens in Salwati, Waigiou, and Mysol, and Mr. Bruijn in Batanta. Nothing has been recorded concerning
its habits.

The following description is copied from the British Museum ‘Catalogue of Birds,’ and is taken from a
specimen in the Leiden Museum, procured by the late Dr. Bernstein in the island of Waigiou :—

‘Adult male. General colour above olive-green, a little more olive-yellow on the head, which is olive like
the back ; rump and upper tail-coverts also a little more olive-yellow, particularly the latter; wing-coverts
and quills dusky, with a steel-green gloss and narrowly edged with olive; tail-feathers blue-black ; lores,
sides of face, ear-coverts, and cheeks olive like the crown, the hinder cheeks washed with ashy grey like the
sides of the neck ; throat whitish, with a tinge of olive on the chin; fore neck and chest with a large patch
of orange-scarlet ; sides of breast ashy, more olive on the flanks; centre of abdomen, thighs, and under tail-
coverts pale yellow, the latter with dusky bases; axillaries and under wing-coverts white, the edge of the
wing dusky washed with olive; quills dusky below, white along the edge of the inner web: ‘bill brownish
black ; feet dark greyish brown; iris brown’ (Guillemard). Total length 2°8 inches, culmen 0-45, wing
2:05, tail 1:05, tarsus 0:5.”

The Plate gives an illustration of an adult male in two positions, the figures being drawn from an Arfak
skin lent to us by Dr. H. Guillemard.

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