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PGCILODRYAS ALBIFACIES, Sharpe.

Southern White-faced Flycatcher.

Pecilodryas albifacies, Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc. (Zool.) vol. xvi. p. 318 (1882).

 

Auruoues closely allied to Pecilodryas leucops of North-western New Guinea, Mr. Goldie sent so many
specimens from the Astrolabe Mountains, all of which presented the same characters, that there can be little
doubt of the two species being distinct. The present bird is very similar to P. leucops, but has the whole of the
region round the eye white. In P. leucops the feathers in front of, below, and round the eye are black,
leaving only a large loral spot of white, the facial appearance of P. albifacies being therefore quite different
when the two birds are compared.

The native name is said by Mr. Goldie to be “ Iddimattamatta ;” he also states that the legs are yellow ;
and this is all we know concerning the species beyond the fact that it was procured by the above-named
collector in the Choqueri district at the back of the Astrolabe Mountains.

The following description I copy from Mr. Sharpe’s essay on Mr. Goldie’s collection, published in the
Linnean Society’s Journal.

« Adult. General colour above olive-green, with a concealed spot of silky white on the sides of the rump ;
lesser and median wing-coverts like the back ; primary-coverts and greater series dusky brown, edged with
olive-green, the latter slightly tinged with rufous brown near the tips; quills dusky brown, externally
olive, a little more yellow in colour than the back; tail-feathers light brown, edged with olive, and having
a small tip of ashy white at the end of the inner web; forehead blackish, extending over the eye; top of
head dark slaty grey with blackish shaft-streaks to the feathers, which are also very faintly tinged with
olive; lores, feathers in front of the eye impinging on the forehead, feathers above and around the eye,
as well as the space below the eye, pure white; ear-coverts slaty black ; cheeks and chin white faintly
washed with yellow ; throat and under surface of body bright yellow, the sides of the breast and flanks
olive-greenish, a tinge of which is also in the centre of the breast; axillaries bright yellow; under wing-
coverts white washed with yellow, with a dusky patch near the edge of the wing, which is also yellow ; quills
ashy-brown below, whitish along the edge of the inner web. ‘Total length 4°65 inches, culmen 0°55, wing
2°85, tail 1:9, tarsus 0:8.”

The figures in the Plate represent a pair of birds of the size of life, drawn from the typical specimens in

[R. B.S.)

the British Museum.