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FODOPSIS WALLACLHL, Gray.
Wallace’s Todopsis.
Todopsis wallacei, Gray, P. Z. S. 1861, pp. 429, 434, pl. xli. fig. 2—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 168.—Meyer, Sitz.

k. Akad. Wien, lxix. p. 81.
chitrea wallacei, Gray, Handl. B. i. p- 334, no. 5033.

 

Tuis pretty little species is rather different in structure of bill from the other members of the genus. The
bill is longer, rather more curved; and the bristles are longer and more numerous, reaching to the end of
the bill. In colours also it is very distinct; but I do not feel disposed to found a new generic title at present
on these characters.

There is, however, another point in connexion with this bird to which I must call attention; and this has
reference to the small Zodopsis which comes from the Aru Islands, and of which I have a single specimen in
my collection. [I have compared this with the typical examples from Mysol in the British Museum, and T
notice that the Aru bird has a black streak under the eye and the spots on the head are in the form of
rounded tips of blue to the feathers of the crown, quite different from the lanceolate tips which appear in
the Mysol species. If the receipt of future specimens should confirm my impression that the Aru bird
is distinct, I propose the name of Zodopsis coronata for it.

Wallace’s Todopsis differs from all the others in its small size,.exceedingly delicate legs and toes, and
the whitish colouring of the entire undersurface, and in having the tail tipped with white, which is only found
in the females of the other members of the genus. Nothing has been recorded of the habits of this species,
which is described as follows by the late Mr. George Robert Gray :—

‘Top of the head black, with the tips of the feathers light blue, and the shaft bluish white; back rufous,
wings and tail dark brown ; wing-coverts tipped with white ; round the eyes, lores, ear-coverts, and beneath
the body white ; quills narrowly margined with white; the tips of the outer tail-feathers also white.

«Total length 4 inches 7 lines, bill from gape 8 lines, wings 2 inches.

“The young bird is rufous-white on the throat; the bill is black tipped with yellowish white, differs from
that of the typical Zodopses in being longer and somewhat curved and in having the bristles as long
as the bill.”

The three figures in the Plate are of the size of life, the one in the foreground representing the 7° coro-
nata from Aru, the centre bird being drawn from one of the typical specimens in the British Museum.

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