MONACHELLA MUELLERIANA.

Chat-like Flycatcher.

Muscicapa mulleriana, Schlegel (nec Muscicapa mulleri, Temm.), Ned. Tijdschr. Dierk. iv. p. 40 (1871).

Monachella sawxicolina, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. vi. p. 63 (1874).—Beccari, ibid. vii. p. 709 (1875).—
D’Albertis, Sydney Mail, 1877, p. 248.—Id. Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. x. p- 11 (1877).—Salvad. op. cit. x. p. 1]
(note), p. 133 (1877).—D’Alb. & Salvad. op. cit. xiv. p- 59 (1879).—Salvad. op. cit. p. 501 (1879).—
Id. Orn. Papuasia &c. p. 83 (1881.)

Monachella mulleriana, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. vi. p. 308 (1874, note)—Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iv.
p. 240 (1879).

Micreca albofrontata, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. New S. Wales, iii. p. 304 (1879), iv. pp. 90, 98 (1879)—Salvad.
Ibis, 1859, p. 323.

 

I am sorry that I cannot follow my friend Count Salvadori in calling this bird Aonachella saxicolina (although
his reasons are worthy of some consideration), as he has only preferred to use that name to avoid the
confusion that might take place between Muscicapa muelleriana of Schlegel and Muscicapa muelleri of
Temminck. I do not think, however, that there is really much chance of this confusion, as the latter bird
is a Flycatcher belonging to the genus Erythromyias, and is an inhabitant of Sumatra and Borneo. Professor
Schlegel’s name having been published three years before that of Count Salvadori, it bas an undoubted
claim to priority. In other respects the name of savicolina is extremely well chosen, as indicating the
habits of the bird; and Signor D’Albertis states that when he first saw the species on the torrents of the
Arfak Mountains he really thought that it was a true Saxicola.

Dr. Beccari also says that in the above-named locality he found the species abundant, but only in the streams
near the sea. During his expediticn up the Fly river, D’Albertis met with the species along the banks, and
relates how, when the water was low, it perched on small rocks at the side of the river, and was continually
in motion flying after insects. Mr. Goldie also states that during his recent expedition to the Astrolabe
Mountains he found the species, in company with Grallina bruijnii, flying about creeks and hopping amongst
the stones.

As far as we know, the present bird is exclusively confined to New Guinea. A specimen was procured by
Solomon Muller in Lobo Bay as long ago as 1828, though it does not seem to have been described till 1871.
It also inhabits the Arfak Mountains, and has been met with at Karons by M. Laglaize. In the southern
part of the island D’Albertis met with it on the Fly river; and Mr. Goldie procured it on the Goldie river
inland from Port Moresby. He has more recently met with it in the Morocco district, at the back of the
Astrolabe range of mountains in South-eastern New Guinea: here it is called Jada.

The following description is taken from Mr. Sharpe’s ‘ Catalogue of Birds :’—

«Adult male. General colour above light French grey, paler on the lower back, the rump and upper tail-
coverts white; wings and tail dark brown; crown of head and nape dark brown, as also the feathers above
the eye and the upper edge of the eyelid, the brown narrowing on the forehead to the base of the bill; lores
and feathers over the front of the eye pure white; between the eye and the base of the bill a triangular
patch of blackish feathers ; sides of face and ear-coverts, as well as entire under surface of body, creamy
white; under wing-coverts dark brown; ‘bill and feet black’ (D’ Alberts). Total length 55 inches,
culmen 0-6, wing 3:8, tail 2-4, tarsus 0°65.

«Adult female. Similar to the male. ‘Total length 5°3 inches, culmen 0°6, wing 3°55, tail 2:25, tarsus 0°65.”

Count Salvadori says that the young bird has the head and the wing-coverts blackish brown spotted with
white, the back dull whitish varied with dusky, and the tips of the tail-feathers white.

The figures in the Plate represent a pair of birds of the size of life, and are drawn from a specimen
collected by Mr Goldie, and now in the British Museum.

[R. B. S.J