HYPOTHYMIS ROWLEYI.
HYPOTHYMIS ROWLEYI.
Rowley’s Blue Flycatcher.
Zeocephus rowleyi, Meyer, in Dawson Rowley’s Orn. Misc. iii. p. 163 (18 7 8 ).
Hypothymis rowleyi, Sharpe, Brit. Mus. Cat. Birds, iv. p. 278 (1 8 7 9 ).
T h e late Marquis o f Tweeddale, in his well-known memoir on the Birds o f Celebes, has certainly proved
that, while it possesses a large number o f peculiar forms, the island o f Celebes is rather Indian in the
affinities o f its avifauna than Austro-Malayan ; but inasmuch as there is also a strong Moluccan element
perceptible in the birds o f the island, I propose still to include them in the present work, as the completion
o f my ‘ Birds o f Asia ’ prevents me from figuring them in th at work, to which perhaps they would
more properly belong.
If, as D r. Meyer first suggested, the present species had turned out to be a true Zeocephus, it
would have been a fact o f the highest interest, as the latter genus is hitherto known only from the
Philippine archipelago. I t is scarcely less interesting, however, to find th at it belongs to the strictly
Indian genus Hypothymis, which thus gains a more extended range. I am glad that the specific name
chosen by D r. Meyer will perpetuate the memory o f such an ardent naturalist and true patron o f science
as the late Mr. George Dawson Rowley, whose untimely death was a real loss to ornithology.
Hypothymis rowleyi is nearly allied to H puella from Celebes and the Sula Islands, and, like that
species, has no black collar o r nape-spot, and has no black on the forehead or chin. I t differs from H . puella,
however, in having the under surface o f a light silvery blue, while the colour o f the back is a greyish
co b alt: in the Celebean species the upper and under surface are alike iu their shade o f blue. The type
specimen in the Dresden Museum still remains unique|i: lit was procured by Dr. Meyer’s collectors in
Great Sangi Island, the avifauna of which, as far as we know, is Celebean in its character.
I take the accompanying description o f the type from Mr. Sharpe’s ‘ Catalogue o f B ird s : ’—
“Adult. General colour above greyish cobalt-blue, m ore grey on the rump ; lesser and median wing-coverts
like the back, the greater series and the quills light bluish grey, edged externally with the same greyish
cobalt as the back o f the quills, internally dusky blackish ; tail greyish blue, dusky blackish on the inner
web s; sides o f face more dusky greyish blue than the h e a d ; cheeks and under surface o f body light
silvery bluish, darker on the throat, and more dusky blue on the sides of the b re a s t; under wing-
coverts and axillaries like the breast. Total length 6’5 inches, culmen 0‘65, wing 3'65, tail 3*6,
tarsus 0-95.”
I am indebted to Dr. Meyer for the loan o f the type specimen, from which the accompanying life-
size figures have been drawn.