SPBDEITQCICHLA ROBERT!, Gc& ritvAatm ,ztm ?i<
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SPHENOCICHLA ROBERTI, Godw.-Aust. fy Wald.
Robert’s Wedg*e-billed Wren.
Sphenocichla roberti, Godwin-Austen & Wald., Ibis, 1875, p. 250.—Hume, Stray Feathers, 1876, p. 217-—Id.
Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xlv. p. 2, pi. vi. (1877).—Id. Str. F. 1879, p. 95.
Stachyrirhynchus roberti, Hume, Str. F. 1879, p. 217, note.—Id. Str. F. 1879, p. 95.
Sphenocichla hutnii, pt., Sharpe, Brit. Mus. Cat. B. vi. p. 283 (1881: ?).
T h e present species replaces the Sphenocichla humii in the hills of Northern Cachar and Munipur, where it
was discovered by Mr. William Robert, who has also collected many interesting new species in these little-
known localities. When I talk of this bird as being a representative o f S. humii, I must state that I
am following the opinion o f my friend Colonel Godwin-Austen ; for I must confess that it seems to me
very doubtful if the Sikbim bird and S . roberti are really distinct from one another. There is a certain
difference in the size o f the bills, but not sufficient to found a species upon; and I believe that future research
will confirm the identity of S. humii and S. roberti, the latter, as figured by me, being the female.
The identical specimen from which my Plate was drawn was described by Mr. Sharpe in the ‘ Catalogue
of B i r d s a n d I append his description.
“ jFemale. Differs from the male in being of a reddish brown above, the feathers edged with black and
subterminally spotted with ashy, producing a scaly appearance; the ashy spots absent on the head, and
more rufescent on the lower back and rum p ; the upper tail-coverts numerously barred with dusky; wing-
coverts like the back and spotted with ashy in the same manner, the greater coverts with numerous dusky cross
bars ; quills dark brown, the secondaries rufous brown externally, the innermost lighter brown and barred
across with dusky; primaries externally barred with fulvous and more narrowly with blackish; tail-feathers
dull brown with numerous bars of dusky blackish, about twenty-two bars being perceptible on the central
feathers; forehead a little clearer than the crown, the lores dusky; upper edge of eyelid white; ear-coverts
blackish, with nearly obsolete whitish shaft-lines; cheeks ashy whitish, the feathers with dark brown centres,
and blackish margins, producing a scaly appearance; throat and chest scaly, the feathers being olive-brown
in the centre, blackish on the margin, with a subterminal line of white; the feathers in the centre o f the breast
ashy, with less-pronounced blackish edges ; sides o f body reddish brown, slightly washed with olive, and
mottled by the presence of a few feathers which are edged with blackish and subterminally marked with dull
white ; under tail-coverts rufous brown, subterminally marked with a line of dull white; under wing-coverts
brown, those near the edge of the wing ashy; quills dusky brown below, pale ashy rufous along the edge
of the inner web; Total length 6 ‘5 inches, culmen 1*15, wing 2*95, tail 2*7, tarsus 1-1.”
I have depicted the bird in two positions, of the natural size. Both figures have been drawn from a
specimen of S . roberti kindly lent to me by Colonel Godwin-Austen.
[R. B. S.]