PLIEZORHYNCHUS RICHARDSIEL, Ramsay

Richards’s Flycatcher.

Piezorhynchus richardsii, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Venue alia (1881)
Pomarea richardsii, Tristram, Ibis, 1882, pp. 136, 142.—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic Genova
: ’

; mo XVill, p. 4292
Monarcha richardsii, Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, ete. iii., App. p. 529 (1882). y Ce

eee

Arter careful examination we incline to consider this species a true Piezorhynchus, as Mr. Ramsay has also
determined it to be, and not a Pomarea, as Canon Tristram calls it, although in its style of coloration it
very much resembles P. castaneiventris. It is distinguished from all the members of the genera Prezorhynchus
and Pomarea by the remarkable white patch on the hinder crown and nape, which serves to characterize the
species at once from all the other Flycatchers of the same group.

The following is the description of an adult male shot in Rendova Island, in the Solomon group, by
Lieut. Richards, R.N., who also met with it in the island of Ugi:—

Adult male. General colour above velvety black, with slight rufous edges to some of the upper tail-coverts ;
wing-coverts like the back ; greater coverts, bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills dull black ; tail-feathers
black; lores, nasal plumes, forehead, and sinciput black, as well as the fore and hind part of the eyelid ;
upper and lower part of eyelid as well as the vertex and entire nape pure white, extending on to the sides
of the neck behind the ear-coverts ; ear-coverts, sides of face, cheeks, throat, and chest glossy black ; feathers
of lower chest black, tipped with chestnut like the rest of the under surface of the body, which is entirely
chestnut; thighs black; axillaries and under wing-coverts black, tipped with pale chestnut, with a patch of
black near the edge of the wing ; quills blackish below, ashy along the edge of the inner web; “bill
horn-colour ; feet black ; iris black ” (Richards). otal length 5:6 inches, culmen 0:7, wing 3:0, tail 2°55,
tarsus 0-65.

The specimen from which the above description was taken has been lent to us by Canon Tristram, in

Whose collection it now remains. The Plate represents the adult male of the natural size, and has been

drawn from the same individual. [R. B. S.J