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ALURGQDUS MELANOCEPHALUS Ramsay

Black-naped Cat-bird.

Ailuredus melanocephalus, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.

S. Wales, viii. p. 25 (1883).—Fins :
ges. Orn. ii. p. 394 (1885). p. 20 (1883).—Finsch u. Meyer, Zeitschr.

 

Ws have already hated in the present work to the differences between uredus melanotis, from the Aru
Islands, and 4. arfakianus, from Mount Arfak; but at the time when we wrote we were unable to convince
ourselves that those two species were specifically distinct. We now consider that we were in error, since
we have seen additional examples of both, and now we have a third representative species in 42. melano-
cephalus from South-eastern New Guinea. Of this latter bird we have seen several specimens collected
by Mr. Goldie and Mr. H. O. Forbes in the Astrolabe Mountains, and by Mr. Hunstein in the Horseshoe
range of the Owen Stanley Mountains.

The present species differs from 4. arfakianus by its black lores and chin and in the uniform character
of the breast and abdomen.

We subjoin a description of an adult male collected by Mr. Hunstein on the Owen Stanley Mountains :—

Adult male. General colour above grass-green, the upper tail-coverts slightly washed with lighter green ;
the upper mantle varied with ovate spots of ochreous buff in the centre of the feathers ; wing-coverts like
the back, the median and greater coverts and the bastard-wing faintly tipped with ashy ochreous buff;
primary-coverts and quills externally green like the back, the primaries washed with bluish on the outer web,
the secondaries tipped with ochreous white, less distinct on the primaries ; tail-feathers dark green on
the outer web, black internally, all the feathers tipped with white, increasing in extent towards the outer
ones; crown of head black, with ovate spots of ochreous buff, smaller on the forehead and nape, the latter
being almost entirely black ; hind neck ochreous buff, the feathers margined with black; lores black,
surmounted by a line of ochreous-buff-spotted feathers ; feathers round eye and ear-coverts black, with a line
of buff-spotted feathers below the eye; behind the ear-coverts a line of whitish down the sides of the neck ;
fore part of cheeks black, as well as the chin; throat and sides of neck ochreous buff, mottled with black
fore neck and remainder of under surface of body rafescent ochre, with greenish
d abdomen more uniform ; all the feathers with more or less

yreast, and washed with greenish ; thighs dull

edges to the feathers ;
edges on the feathers of the chest, the breast an
distinct white shaft-lines ; sides of body and flanks like the |

ajl-coverts like the abdomen, with white shaft-lines ; under w
Total length 11°5 inches, culmen 1:3,

greenish ; under t ing-coverts and axillaries ashy,
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tipped with whitish ; quills below dusky, ashy along the inner edge.
wing 5:7, tail 4°6, tarsus 1-7.
The figure in the Plate represents an adult male of the natur

Mr. H. O. Forbes. [R. B. S.J

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