PSEUDOGERYGONE NOTATA.

White-spotted Flycatcher.

Gerygone chrysogaster, pt., Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, p. 434.

Gerygone neglecta, pt., Wallace, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1865, p. 475.—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genovy. vii. p. 957 (1875).

Gerygone notata, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. xii. p. 344 (2878), xiv. p. 504 (1879).—Id. Orn. Papuasia e
delle Molucche, ii. p. 99 (1881).

Pseudogerygone notata, Sharpe, Notes from the Leyden Museum, i. p. 29 (1878).—Id. Cat. Birds in Brit. Mus. iv.
p. 227 (1879).

Leptotodus tenuis, Meyer in Madardsz, Zeitschr. ges. Orn. ii. p. 197, pl. ix. fig. 2 (1884).

 

Tue members of the genus Pseudogerygone have been separated by us from true Gerygone on account of the
different proportions of the quills, the second primary being equal to the secondaries in the former, while it
is considerably longer than the secondaries in the genus Gerygone. Whether these differences are sufficient
to separate the two genera is a matter for ornithologists to consider; but there can be no question as to the
convenience of dividing the great genus Gerygone into two sections, when we have as good characters for
separation as those mentioned above.

The type of the present species was discovered by Dr. Beccari on the river Wa Samson, in North-
western New Guinea, and was described by Count Salvadori. A specimen had been collected by Mr. A. R.
Wallace in the island of Mysol many years previously, but had been referred either to G. chrysogaster or
G. neglecta by previous writers. The Leyden Museum contains specimens from Salwati, obtained by
Dr. Bernstein ; and quite recently Dr. A. B. Meyer has received a specimen from Amberbaki in North-
western New Guinea, which he described as belonging to a new genus and species. He very kindly
sent us the type specimen for examination, and we found by comparison that it was identical with the
specimens of Pseudogerygone notata in the British Museum.

The following is a copy of the description given by us in the British Museum Catalogue of Birds :—

“General colour above dark greenish olive, rather more rufescent on the upper tail-coverts ; least wing-
coverts like the back; greater and median wing-coverts dark brown, edged and tipped with yellow; quills
dark brown, externally edged with the same olive as the back; tail-feathers brown, with olive margins ; lores
buffy whitish ; ear-coverts olive, with lighter shaft-streaks ; throat and breast white, slightly tinged with
yellow ; the abdomen, thighs, and under tail-coverts olive-yellow; under wing-coverts white, as also the
axillaries, washed with yellow, especially on the edge of the wing; quills dusky brown below, buffy white
along the inner edge of the quills. Total length 4-2 inches, culmen 0:45, wing 1°95, tail 1°55, tarsus 0-6.”

The figures in the Plate are drawn from the type specimen of Leptotodus tenuis, which was kindly lent to
us by Dr. Meyer. They represent an adult bird in two positions.

[R. B. 8.]

 

aS
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