PACHYCEPHALA BRUNNEA, Ramsay.

Brown Thickhead.

Hopsaltria (?) brunnea, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. 8. Wales, i. p. 391 (1877).

Pachycephala brunnea, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. 8. Wales, iii. p. 382 (1879) ; iv. p. 99 (1879).—Salvad. Ibis,
1879, p. 324.

Pachycephala dubia, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, iv. p. 99, note (1879).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ.
Genov. xv. p. 46 (1879).—Id. Orn. Papuasia &c. ii. p. 228 (1881).

 

In an early collection of Mr. Goldie’s from South-eastern New Guinea occurred a single specimen of this
bird, which we identified as Pachycephala brunnea of Ramsay, and the Plate was lettered with this name. We
regret that at the time we had overlooked the fact that there was already a P. brunnea of Wallace, and that
therefore Mr. Ramsay’s name could not stand. As Count Salvadori has pointed ont, the species has also been
described a second time by Mr. Ramsay under the name of P. dubia, by which title it should beknown. The
habitat seems to be South-eastern New Guinea, where it has been obtained on the Laloki river, and more
recently in the Astrolabe Mountains by Mr. Goldie. It belongs to the plain-coloured section of Thickheads,
and appears to be very closely allied to P. sémplea of Gould.

The following is a copy of the diagnosis of the species given in Count Salvadori’s work on the Birds of
New Guinea.

Above clear brown tinged with olive, the head darker ; inner web of the quills and tail-feathers dusky grey
(with the base of the quills whitish), white below ; lores dusky; a faintly indicated dusky band above the eye ;
throat greyish ashy, dusky towards the breast, the latter marked witha transverse band of dusky ; sides of the
breast and of the abdomen dusky ; abdomen, under tail-coverts, and under wing-coverts silky white ; tail dusky
above, tinged with olive like the wing, below dusky cinereous ; shafts of the tail-feathers black above, below
white. Total length 5:5 inches, wing 3:3, tail 2°5, bill 0°55.

For the opportunity of figuring this species we are indebted to Mr. Edward Gerrard, jun., who kindly lent
us one of Mr. Goldie’s specimens from the Astrolabe Mountains. The Plate represents the bird, of the
size of life, in two positions.

[R. B. S.J

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