PACHYCEPHALA SCH LEGELI, Rosenb.

Schlegel’s Thick-head.

Pachycephala schlegeli, von Rosenberg, Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk. iv. p. 43 (1871).—Sclater, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 697.
—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. x. p. 141 (1877).

 

TuE genus Pachycephata is preeminently an Australasian form, being not only widely distributed over the
whole of the Australian continent, but ranging over nearly all the Oceanic islands, and reaching its extreme
development in the Moluccas. Here almost every group of islands has its peculiar species of Pachycephala
of the ordinary form, bright yellow underneath, with a black head and collar across the breast. This is
the typical characteristic of most of the Thick-heads, though in Australia there are some species of the
genus Pachycephala which are remarkable for their dull coloration, leading off apparently to the Hopsaltrie
(or Large-headed Robins). This is also the case in New Guinea, where both bright and dull-coloured species
of Thick-heads are met with.

Professor Schlegel gives the following account of the species :—

“Mr. von Rosenberg has just sent us from the interior of New Guinea a nice series of specimens of a
Pachycephala evidently new to science. It belongs to the number of species where the male in full plumage
has the throat white, the head and chest black, the breast, as well as the belly, and a collar round the neck,
bright yellow. Such, for instance, are the Pachycephala gutturalis of Australia, recognizable by its very
small beak and its tail partly grey and partly black, P. calliope, of Timor, with a long bill and green tail,
P. melanura, of the Moluccas, also with a long bill, but with a black tail.

‘““Pachycephala schlegeli has the bill short, like P. gutturalis; the tail, on the other hand, is black, as in
P. melanura; but it is distinguished from all its allies by its small size, by its pectoral band of black three
times as large as usual, its black wings, and finally by the yellow of the breast and abdomen passing into
brownish orange.

“Wing 3 inches, tail 2 inches 3 lines; bill from front 5 lines, breadth of bill at forehead 22 lines ;
tarsus 10 lines; middle toe 5 lines.

‘In the living bird, according to von Rosenberg, the bill is black, the iris dark greyish brown, and the feet
bluish grey.”

I do not reproduce the entire description of the sexes given by Professor Schlegel, as the characters
recorded above sufficiently distingnish the species, which is, indeed, a very well characterized one. The
figures in the Plate represent the two sexes, of the natural size, and are drawn from specimens kindly lent
to me by Dr. A. B. Meyer, from the Dresden Museum.

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