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SERICORNIS BECCARITI, Sawaa.

Beceari’s Sericornis.

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Sericornis beccarit, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. vi. p. 79 (1874), xvi. p. 186 (1880).—Id. Orn. Papuasia, etc.
p- 407 (1881).—Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. vii. p. 305 (1883).

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Tue genus Sericornis is mainly Australian, but some representatives of it are met with in New Guinea
and the Aru Islands. The present bird is one of these, being found only in the last-named locality.

There are two sections of the genus, one in which the species have a distinct dark subterminal band on
the tail-feathers, and a second in which this dark subterminal band is absent. Beccari’s Sericornis belongs
to the latter division and is closely allied to S. Jrontals, a widely spread Australian species, but it is
distinguished by having the ear-coverts dusky brown and the under tail-coverts dusky with fulvous tips.

As far as we yet know, the present species is peculiar to the Aru Islands, where it was discovered by the
celebrated Italian traveller and naturalist whose name it bears.

The following description of the typical example is taken from the ‘British Museum Catalogue of
Birds ’:—

‘* Adult male (Aru Islands; Beccari: type of the species). General colour above dark olive-brown,
gradually becoming more rufous-brown on the lower back and rump; the upper tail-coverts deep rusty
brown; lesser wing-coverts like the back; median and greater coverts and bastard-wing feathers blackish
with narrow white tips, the inner greater coverts brown; primary-coverts black; quills dusky brown, with
olive edges to the primaries, the secondaries externally rusty brown; tail-feathers brown with dusky bars
under certain lights, externally washed with reddish brown; crown of the head a little more dingy than the
back, the forehead black, as also the lores, which are surmounted by a white streak; no eyebrow; eyelid
above and below the eye white; below the eye a blackish shade; ear-coverts brown; cheeks and throat
white, the feathers with narrow blackish margins and spots; remainder of the under surface of the body
white slightly tinged with olive-yellow; the fore neck and chest washed with dusky; sides of the body
and flanks washed with olive-brown; thighs dusky brown; under tail-coverts yellowish buff, the long ones
brown with broad yellowish-buff margins ; under wing-coverts dusky brown, the ones near the edge of the
wing white, spotted with black; axillaries white; quills below dusky brown, inner. edges ashy grey; ‘ iris
cinnabar-red’ (Beccari). Total length 7 inches, culmen 0-6, wing 2°35, tail 1°65, tarsus 0°85. (Jus.
Civic. Genov.)”

We are indebted to the kindness of the Marquis of Doria, the director of the Civic Museum at Genoa,
for the loan of the typical specimen of the present species, which is contained in the Museum under his care.
The Plate represents that bird in two positions, of the natural size. [R. B. S.]

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