PIEZORHYNCHUS MEDIUS

: Sharpe.

Coppinger’s t'lycatcher,

lpxanr has medius. Sharn tf ] 1 7]
Piezorhynchus medius, Sharpe, Rep. Zool. Coll. Voy. H.M.S. « Alert p. 14 (1884)

ee

Tue specimen irom Ww hic h thie Pp esent species Vas ch ir cterized Was obtained duri oO | > VOY 7
surveying-ship ‘ Alert,’ by Dr. Copy} A 2 ng the voyage of the
. ’ 4 I a : : e . inser, the ttached to the expedition. He procured a
male at Fort Mollie, in Queensland, in the month of Mav 1° oe :
— ind a . HN Ol May 1668; and an examination of the individual
m question induced us to reconsider the relations of tha : cp: :
i Weiti ACld tthe species of Piezorhynchus, to which it js
allie muin= in the year 1879. we d AL ee oe :
‘’ | _ p10 a 1879, we had recognized four species of this particular group of
catchers, viz. P. nsteini fro he Island of Salwat ae
Flycatchers, ¢ 1 the Islan watt, P. nigrimentum from Amboyna and Goram,
fC. i. eS ae aN ‘ ; . in iG
P. trivirgatus from Timor, and P. eo in North-eastern Australia. The latter species had previously
ite ; ) fp f } t 1X 0.) co CRY » ‘ 1 ry ° :
been united with P. SOS, Nt was separated in 1860 by the late Mr. G. R. Gray: and in writing
our account of the ‘Alert’ collections we acl ledeed

qd our error in uniting with it P. adbiventris of

Gould.
Dr. E. P. Ramsay, in bis latest lis 1888) of the Birds of Australi:

lia, gives the habitat of P. gould

as from Cape York to the Wide-B y distric f Eastern Australia, as far as the Richmond and Clarence
Rivers, to New South Wales. P. | is said to occur only in the Gulf of Carpentaria and the
Cape York district, prob bly ey ling to Rockingham Bay. He has apparently overlooked our
description of P. medius, which is cl ly allied to P. albiventris, and, like that species, has the upper

tail-coverts black; but differs from it 10 o

he sides of the body orange-rufous instead of white.
P. gouldi has the sides of the body ora ge-rufous as in P. medius, but has the upper tail-coverts grey.
NO Totes on the habits of P. medius have yet been recorded; but they are doubtless exactly the

Sane as those of the allied Australian Flycatchers, described by Mr. Gould.

 

1 . ° . : ° . : . eee,
Dr. Coppinger describes the soft parts as follows :—* Iris black ; bill light grey; legs and feet dark.
@eeearires in the Plate are taken from the typical specimen in the British Museum, and represent

two male birds of the size of life.

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