POMAREA CASTANEIVENTRIS.
Chestnut-bellied Flycatcher.
Monarcha castaneiventris, Verr. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1858, p. 304.— Gray, Birds Trop. Isl. o f the Pacific Ocean,
p. 19 (18 5 9 ).—Id.Hand-list of Birds, i. p. 320, no. 4793 (1869).—Salvad. Om. Papuasia, etc. iii. App.
p. 529 (1882).
Pomarea castaneiventris, Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. iv. p. 435, pi. xi. fig. 2 (1879). Tristr. Ibis, 1879, p. 439.
Pomarea ? castaneiventris, Salvad. Om. Papuasia, etc. ii. p. 11 (1881).
T hough described by M. Verreaux in 1858, the real home o f the present species has only recently been
ascertained for certain. F o r many years its habitat was recorded as “ O c e a n i a b u t so unlike was it to any
Oceanic species o f Flycatcher, that, in the ‘ Catalogue of Birds,’ the latter locality was regarded as doubtful.
Since th at book was written, however, the bird has been met with in the Solomon Islands, thus fixing its
habitat beyond a doubt. Capt. Richards procured it a t Makira Harbour in Sau Cristoval, and Mr. Ramsay
has received it from his collectors in the Solomon Islands. The latter gentleman has also described a
nearly allied species as P . rufocastanea, which was considered by Count Salvadori to be identical with
P . castaneiventris; but after comparing the two species, we consider them to be separable, and our
readers will find the distinguishing characters noted under the heading o f the former bird.
The following is a copy o f the description of the adult male given in the ‘ Catalogue o f Birds,’ and drawn
up from the type in the British Museum :—
" General colour above glossy black; wings black, the quills somewhat b rowner; tail black ; sides of
face, sides o f neck, throat, and fore neck glossy black like the upper surface; remainder of under
surface o f body c h e stn u t; under wing-coverts and axillaries chestnut, those near the edge o f the wing
black; quills ashy black below, whitish along the edge of the inner web. Total length 7 inches, culmen 0 ’7,
wing 3'6 , tail 3, tarsus 0 75.”
The female differs from the male in being iron-grey instead o f purplish black ; the breast and abdomen
are dark chestnut as in the male, but the throat is iron-grey.
The figures in the P late are drawn from a pair of birds lent to us by Mr. E . P. Ramsay; they represent
a male and female o f the natural size.
[R. B. S.]