' PGECILOBB.YA5 PLACEN S „
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PCECILODRYAS PLACENS.
Yellow-banded Robin.
Eopsaltria placens, Ramsay, Proceedings o f the Linnean Society o f N ew South Wales, iii.
Pcecilodryas flamcincta, Sharpe, Annals and Mag. o f Nat. Hist. 5th series, vol. iii. p. 313.
Paecilodryas placens, Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc., Zool. xiv. p. 630.
My first acquaintance with this k ig h tly coloured Robin was in the month of March 1879, when five
specimens wire sent to this country by Mr. Kendal Broadbent, whose recent researches in South-eastern
New Guinea have earned him a reputation as one o f the best collectors in Australia. The collection has
been described by Mr. Bowdler Sharpe in the • Journal o f the Linnean Society o f L o n d o n b u t a diagnosis
o f the present species was published by him in the April number of the ‘ Annals.’ Scarcely, however, had
Mr. Sharpe’s description been published and become beyond recall, when a paper o f Mr. Ramsay’s was
received in this country, containing an bitpount o f the collections made in south-eastern New Guinea by
Messrs. Goldie and Broadbent. This paper purports ' to have been read as long ago as the 30th of
September 1878; and at any rate the description o f Mr. Ramsay’s Eopsaltria placens must have been published
long before that of M r. Sharpe’s Pmilodrpas flamcincta. The former gentleman remarks on the structural
peculiarities o f the species as showing a likeness to the genus Leucopkantes of S c la te r; and th at genus,
Mr. Sharpe has ju st shown us in the fourth volume of his ■ Catalogue o f Birds,’ must he considered a,
synonym o f my genus PcecUodryas.
I t is much to be regretted that the specimens sent by Mr. Broadbent were sold in London with an
Assurance that they had been sent direct to England, whereas it now turns out that a portion o f the collection
had also been sent to Sydney. Hence Mr. Sharpe and Mr. Ramsay were both led to describe the new
species independently o f each o th e r; and thus a bird coming from such a recently explored field as S.E.
New Guinea is introduced to the notice o f ornithologists with two synonyms affixed to it in the twinkling of
an eye. The skins forwarded to Sydney a re marked by Mr. Broadbent as having come from the mountain-
scrub o f Goldie’s River.
The following is a translation o f Mr. Sharpe’s original description o f P . flamcincta.
Adult. General colour above yellowish g re e n ; the wing-coverts and quills dusky black, edged with the
green colour o f the back; tail-feathers dusky brown, externally edged with green, and having a small white
tip ; crown and nape dark ashy g r e y ; chin, fore p a rt o f cheeks, and ear-coverts uniform with the head, the
latter rath er blacker; hinder p art o f cheeks, lower p art of throat, and jugular region bright yellow, as also
the sides o f the head, forming a broad collar across the throat ; fore neck and upper breast yellowish
g r e e n ; rest o f under surface of body very bright yellow; under wing-coverts and axillaries white washed
with bright yellow. Total length 5 ’3 inches, culmen 0 ’7, wing 3*65, tail 2-2, tarsus 0 -9.
One o f the figures in the accompanying Plate represents a specimen in my own collection, the other that
in the British Museum.