EDOLIISOMA POLIOPSE, Sharpe.

Grey-faced Cuckoo-Shrike.

Edoliisoma poliopsa (err. typ.), Sharpe, Journ. Linn, Soc., Zool. xvi. pp. 318, 433 (1882).

 

Tue original specimens of this Cuckoo-Shrike were sent by Mr. Goldie from the Morocco district in the
Astrolabe Mountains, S.E. New Guinea, where its native name is said to be ‘ Nagioa.” Mr. Forbes has
found it in the Sogeri district of the same range of mountains. Two specimens were sent by Mr. Goldie,
both of them evidently females; but notwithstanding this fact, we described the species as new without any
hesitation.

Many of the species of the genus Edohisoma can scarcely be told apart, if the males only are examined,
whereas the females are very distinct and easily recognizable. Thus it was that we felt certain that the
male, when discovered, would be found scarcely to differ from the same sex of E. schisticeps, but there would
be no mistake about the females ; and now that Mr. Forbes has discovered the male there can be no doubt
on the point. The validity of the species rests therefore on the female bird, which may be distinguished
from the hen of LZ. schisticeps by the slaty-grey colour of the chin, ear-coverts, and fore part of the cheeks.

The following is a description of both sexes :-—

Adult male. General colour above slaty grey; lesser wing-coverts like the back; median and greater
coverts clearer and more French-grey; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills black, the secondaries
externally French-grey like the greater wing-coverts ; upper tail-coverts like the back ; centre tail-feathers
grey, with a broad black band at the end; the remainder black, with a broad grey tip at the outer ones ;
crown of head, hind neck, and mantle a shade darker slaty grey than the lower back and rump; lores and
nasal plumes black ; feathers round eye, ear-coverts, and cheeks blackish, with a slight greyish shade ; chin
blackish; throat and under surface of body leaden grey, clearer and more slaty grey on the lower breast
and abdomen, as well as on the sides of body and flanks; thighs and under tail-coverts, under wing-coverts
and axillaries pale slaty grey; quills below blackish; the inner webs ashy whitish towards their bases.
Total length 8 inches, culmen 0:75, wing 4°4, tail 3°25, tarsus 0-9.

Adult female. Different from the male. General colour above dark chestnut, more dusky on the mantle
and upper back, where the feathers are obscurely dark-shafted ; the scapulars like the mantle; the lower
back, rump, and upper tail-coverts lighter and more maroon-brown ; two centre tail-feathers chestnut, with
a subterminal mark of blackish ; remainder of tail-feathers black, tipped with chestnut, increasing in extent
towards the outermost, which is also chestnut along the outer web; wing-coverts chestnut ; bastard-wing
and primary-coverts black ; quills black, externally chestnut, broader on the secondaries, the innermost of
which are entirely chestnut ; entire head and nape, as well as the side of the face and ear-coverts, slaty grey,
blackish on the lores and on extreme base of forehead and below the eye; the ear-coverts also blackish ;
fore part of cheeks and chin ashy grey; hinder cheeks and throat chestnut, barred with grey; remainder of
under surface rich chestnut, becoming paler towards the flanks and under tail-coverts ; under wing-coverts
like the breast, as also the axillaries; quills black below, rufcus along the inner web. Total length
6:8 inches, culmen 0:8, wing 4:2, tail 3-4, tarsus 0°85.

The Plate represents both sexes of the size of life, the figures being drawn from specimens procured by
Mr. H. O. Forbes in the Astrolabe range.

[R. B. S.J

ne |
= S
aoe

an

re
}

a
Jy