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AZALURGEDUS Sst ONITI, Sharpe.
Stone’s Cat Bird.
Ailuredus stonii, Sharpe, Nature, Aug. 17, 1876, p. 339.—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genova, ix. p. 193 (1876).

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—Sharpe, Proc. Linn. Soe. xiii. p. 495 (187 7).—Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. New S. Wales, iii. p. 268
(1879); iv. p. 97 (1879).—Salvad. Orn. della Papuasia &c. p. 678 (1881).

 

Count Satvaponrt, in his great work on the birds of New Guinea, mentions his having examined the type
of this species in the British Museum ; but he considers that it is by no means a very well-marked form,
and may yet prove to be identical with 2. duccoides. This was at first my own idea; and although I had
the drawing prepared some years ago, I never ventured to publish it, but relied on the arrival of more
specimens to decide the validity of the species. I have since seen several examples from South-eastern
New Guinea, and I have found all the characters noted by Mr. Sharpe to be fully borne out in all the birds
exainined by me; so that now I have no alternative but to recognize Stone’s Cat Bird as a well-founded
species of the genus diluredus. It is closely allied to 4. buccoides of North-western New Guinea (which
bird, by the way, has been said by Count Salvadori to bave been obtained on the Fly river also), but is
distinguished by the small spots on the under surface and the darker head. It represents 42. duccoides in
Soutb-eastern New Guinea.

Mr. E. P. Ramsay records the capture of a few specimens by Mr. A. Goldie, about fifteen miles inland
from Port Moresby. They were found in dense scrubs, feeding on fruit and berries.

The following description has been copied from Mr. Sharpe’s original account of the species :—

Adult-—General colour above bright green, some of the feathers tinged with blue; wings green, like
the back, the inner webs dusky brown, the primaries externally washed with yellow, the secondaries tipped
with the latter colour; tail green, blackish on the imner webs of the outermost rectrices, which are tipped
with white; head dark brown, slightly washed with olive; hind neck yellowish buff, mottled with black
centres to the feathers, those adjoining the mantle spotted with green ; sides of face and throat pure
white, with a few tiny spots of black on the ear-coverts, larger on the sides of the neck; rest of under
surface of body ochraceous buff, the fore neck and chest minutely spotted with green, the flanks also with a
few tiny spots of the latter colour; under wing-coverts yellowish buff, the ee of the wing washed with
green. ‘Total length 9°3 inches, culmen 1:15, wing 5°05, tail 3:5, tarsus 1°59.

The figure in the Plate, which represents the species of about the natural size, has been drawn from the

typical specimen kindly lent to me by Mr. Bowdler Sharpe.

 

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