HETERANAX MUNDUS.

Forbes’s Pied Flycatcher.

Monarcha mundus, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1883, p. 54, pl. xii. fig. 2.

 

In describing this species, Dr. Sclater seems to have had some suspicion that it was not a typical Monarcha,
for he figures the bill alongside that of JZ castus, in order to show the difference between them. On the
arrival of the typical specimens in the British Museum, we at once compared them with those species which
seemed to be their natural allies in the genus Prezorhynchus, and we found that the Timor-Laut bird
differed in the structure of its bill from all of them. It is closely allied to the Australian genus Sizura ;
but the latter has the bill flattened, although it is very narrow ; whereas in J mundus the bill is not only
narrow, but is strongly compressed, so that it is higher than broad at the nostrils. Under these
circumstances, we have felt compelled to propose the new generic term of Heteranaw (érepos = alter, and
avak — rex).

Mr. Forbes informs us that he shot this species near the village of Waitidal, on the island of Larat; it
was found not far from the coast.

The following description is taken from the original specimens :—

Adult male. General colour above iron-grey, with a band of silky white plumes across the ramp; wing-
coverts glossy blue-black, including the bastard wing and primary-coverts; quills black, externally edged
with iron-grey, broader on the secondaries ; upper tail-coverts and four central feat feats blue-black, the
next pair with a white spot near the tip, the latter fringed with black, ae other fealllears pica ae in
white, increasing in extent towards the outermost, where the white occupies the terminal half of the Heathen,
forehead, lores, a narrow superciliary line, ear-coverts, and feathers round the eye velvety black ; feathers
below the eye, cheeks, sides of face, and sides of neck pure white; base of cheeks and Cee of throat
black ; sides of the throat and rest of the under surface pure white, with a slight wash of grey on the

: Wat aCreme e ving ‘+k; quills dusky
flanks; thighs black; under wing-coverts and axillaries pure white; edge of wing black; q cy

1 T ‘4 inches, culmen 0°7, wing 3°29,
blackish below, ashy along the edge of the inner web. Total length 6:4 inches, cu g
tail 2°8, tarsus 0°85. a
1 1 c i 30 far ) » throat.
Adult female. Like the male, but with the black not extending so far down the ie
cal pair of specimens, before their deposition in the
They are represented in the Plate,

[R. B. S.]

Wing 3:1 inches.

Dr. Sclater having very kindly lent us the typi
British Museum, we have been enabled to give a figure of them both.

of the size of life.