SERICORNIS ARFAKIANA, Sawada. Arfak Sericornis. Sericornis arfakiana, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genoy. vii. p. 962 (1875), xvi. p. 187 (1880).—Id. Orn. Papuasia, ete. il. p. 408 (1881).—Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. vii. p. 306 (1883). AxruoueH belonging to the same section of the genus Sericornis as S. beccarii, with no dark subterminal band on the tail-feathers, the present species nevertheless represents a different division of the genus. The species which have the tail marked as above are six in number ; but the colour of the throat serves as a good distinguishing character between them. Thus S. drwnnea has the throat bright rufous, S. citreogularis has it yellow, S. frontalis and S. beccarti have it white, while in S. magnirostris and S. arfakiana the throat is pale tawny buff like the lores and the base of the forehead. Sericornis arfakiana differs from its near ally, S. magmrostris, in its much darker colour and blacker legs ; the colour of the upper surface is dark olive-brown instead of pale ashy rufous; underneath it is deep olivaceous in tint, instead of being pale ashy tinged with olive. It is, as yet, only known to inhabit the Arfak Mountains in North-western New Guinea. The following description of the typical specimen is taken from the British Museum ‘ Catalogue of Birds ’:— * ddult male (Profi, Arfak ; Bruijn: type of the species). General colour above dark olive-brown, browner on the lower back and rump, and rusty brown on the upper tail-coverts; lesser wing-coverts and median coverts like the back; greater coverts darker brown, edged with olive-brown, and with tips of dull fulvous forming an indistinct wing-bar ; bastard-wing feathers and primary-coverts blackish ; quills dark brown, edged with rusty olive, paler along the margin of the primaries ; tail-feathers dark brown, washed with reddish brown on their margins ; crown of the head more rusty brown than the back ; lores and base of the forebead light rusty colour, the latter slightly mottled with dusky tips to the feathers ; no eyebrow ; feathers round the eye and ear-coverts pale rusty red, the latter with paler shaft-streaks ; cheeks and throat pale rusty fulvous ; fore neck and remainder of under surface of body pale ashy olive ; the chest somewhat washed with rusty ; sides of the body and flanks rather deeper olive; thighs and under tail-coverts rusty ; under wing-coverts and axillaries dusky olive with somewhat of a reddish tinge ; quills below dusky brown, inner edges ashy. ‘Total length 4°5 inches, culmen 0°6, wing 2°35, tail 1°75, tarsus 0°85.” The figures in the Plate are drawn from the original specimen above described, and represent the bird of the size of life and in two positions. The Marquis Doria has been kind enough to lend us the specimen for the purpose of figuring in the present work. [R. B. S.] > ITZ, ce Bw o POLST’ "es re eo pie le Gwe IT AS G ~~ —_ > i“) iS S53 ww) he/ A ca, “e ¥ 7