HETEROMYIAS CINEREIFRONS.

Ashy-fronted Flycatcher,

Pecilodryas ? cinereifrons, Ramsay, P. Z. S. 1875, p. 588.—Id. Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. ii. mse
Heteromyias cinereifrons, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iv. p. 239 (1879).

 

Tuts interesting bird was described by Mr. E. Pierson Ramsay from a specimen shot at Dalrymple’s Gap,
near Cardwell, Queensland, and was placed by him, with doubt, in the genus Pecilodryas, from which it has
lately been removed by Mr. Sharpe, who has made it the type of a new genus, which he calls Fleteromyias.
It is allowed by the latter gentleman to stand very close to Pecilodryas, a genus instituted by myself in 1865,
and of which the type is P. cerviniventris, figured by me in the ‘ Birds of Australia ;’ but the bill is differently
shaped, being higher at the nostrils than it is broad; and this peculiarity allies it very closely to the genus
Metabolus, whose single species, 1. rugensis, 18 apparently confined to the Caroline Islands. Beyond these
few remarks respecting the scientific history of the present species I am unable to add any thing, its habits
and economy being at present entirely unknown. In fact, at the precise moment when I write, there exists
but a single complete specimen of the bird, viz. the type in the Australian Museum at Sydney, a full
description of which, as given by Mr. Sharpe in bis Catalogue, I transcribe :—

“ Adult. General colour above rusty brown, the head and nape dark ashy grey, shaded slightly with brown
except on the forehead, which accordingly looks lighter grey ; over the eye a broad streak of light French
grey, extending to the sides of the nape ; feathers in front of the eye dusky greyish black; round the eye
a ring of feathers, blackish where it joins the loral spot before, and the ear-coverts behind; fore part of
cheeks and feathers just below the eye white; ear-coverts rusty brown, blackish just under the eye ; a chin-
spot and feathers at base of lower mandible greyish black ; throat and centre of breast and abdomen white ;
chest and fore neck, as well as the sides of the breast, light grey ; the sides of the body and under tail-
coverts tawny buff; thighs grey; under wing-coverts white, the axillaries tipped with tawny; greater
series dark ashy, forming a patch on the under wing-coverts ; quills ashy brown below, white at the base
of both webs; upper wing-coverts ashy grey, the median and greater series dark brown slightly shaded
with rusty brown; bastard wing externally ashy, internally dark brown; primary-coverts uniform dark
brown ; quills dark brown, paler towards the tips, edged externally with rusty brown, the inner secondaries
entirely of the latter colour and resembling the back, all the quills but the latter white at base, forming
a bar across the wing; upper tail-coverts rufous, the tail-feathers brown, washed on the edges with rusty
brown, inclining to rufous near their bases, the outer feathers narrowly tipped with white on the inner
web. ‘Total length 6-3 inches, culmen 0:7, wing 3°85, tail 2°7, tarsus 1:2.”

I have availed myself of Mr. Ramsay’s permission to figure the type of this species before its return
to Sydney; and in the accompanying Plate I have given two illustrations of the bird (in two positions),
both of the natural size.