PACHYCEPHALOPSIS HATTAMENSIS.

Hattam Thickhead.

Pachycephala hattamensis, Meyer, Sitz. k. Ak. Wissensch. zu Wien, lxix. p. 391 (1874).—Salvad. Ann. Mus.
Civ. Gen. x. p. 142 (1877).—Oust. Bull. Soc. Philom. Paris, 1877.

Pachycephala haltamensis (errore), Sclater, Ibis, 1874, p. 417.

Pachycephalopsis hattamensis, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genov. xv. p. 48, no. 47 (1879).—Id. Orn. Papuasia &c.
ii. p. 236 (1881).

 

Tue shorter tail and longer tarsi in this species have been considered by Count Salvadori sufficient to
separate the bird generically from the genus Pachycephala; and although I was at first disposed to doubt
the admissibility of adopting his genus Pachycephalopsis for the species, I am now inclined to think that he
was right in effecting this separation. Unfortunately, before I had taken this view, the printing of the Plate
had been finished; and hence the discrepancy of the name on the latter with that at the head of the present
article.

As far as we know, the present species is only found in North-western New Guinea, having been
discovered in the district of Hattam by Dr. Meyer; and it has been met with in the same country and on
the Arfak Mountains by the Italian travellers D’Albertis and Beccari, There would appear to be no
difference in the sexes; but in the young birds, according to Count Salvadori, the colour is browner and
more white on the abdomen, and the external aspect of the quills is rufous.

I add a translation of the description given by the last-named author in his work on the Birds of New
Guinea :—Head, neck, and sides of the head ashy; lores white; back and rump greenish olive; chin and
throat white; lower throat, breast, and abdomen olive-yellow, duller on the lower throat and the breast ;
quills dusky, externally margined with brownish rufous; the upper wing-coverts dusky, margined with
olivaceous; under wing-coverts rufous; upper tail-coverts and tail brownish rufous; under tail-coverts
pale brown ; the shafts of the tail-feathers extending a little beyond the web.

Signor D’Albertis states that the iris is chestnut, the bill black, and the feet dusky.

The figures in the Plate represent a pair of birds of the natural size. They are drawn from the typical
specimen kindly lent to me by Dr. Meyer.

[R. B. S.]

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