SERICORNIS ARFAKIANA, Salvad.
Arfak Sericornis.
Sericornis drfakiana, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov, vii. p. 962 (18 7 5 ), xvi. p. 187 (18 8 0 ).—Id . Orn.
P apuasia, etc. ii. p. 408; (18 8 1 ).—Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. v ii,g . 306 (1883).
A l t h o u g h belonging to the same section o f the genus Sericornis as S . beccarii, with no dark subterminal
band on the tail-feathers, the present species nevertheless represents a different division o f the genus. The
species which have the tail marked as above are six in number ; but the colour o f the throat serves as a good
distinguishing character between them. Thus S. brunnea has the throat bright rufous, S . citreogularis has it
yellow, S . frontalis and S . beccarii have it white, while in S. magnirostris and S. arfalciana the throat is pale
tawny buff like the lores and the base o f the forehead.
Sericornis arfalciana differs from its near ally, S . magnirostris, in its much darker colour and blacker le^s ;
the colour o f the upper surface is dark olive-brown instead of pale ashy rufous ; underneath it is deep
olivaceous in tint, instead of being pale ashy tinged with olive. It is, as yet, only known to inhabit the
Arfak Mountains in North-western New Guinea.
The following description o f the typical specimen is taken from the British Museum ‘ Catalogue o f Birds ’ :—
“Adult male (Profi, Arfak ; Bruijn : type o f the species). General colour above dark olive-brown, browner
on the lower back and rump, and rusty brown on the upper tail-coverts ; lesser wing-coverts and median
coverts like the back ; greater coverts darker brown, edged with olive-brown, and with tips of dull fulvous
forming ah indistinct wing-bar ; bastard-wing feathers and primary-coverts blackish ; quills dark brown, edged
with rusty olive, paler along the margin o f the primaries ; tail-feathers dark brown, washed with reddish brown
on their margins ; crown o f the head more rusty brown than the back ; lores and base o f the forehead light
rusty colour, the latter slightly mottled with dusky tips to the feathers ; no eyebrow ; feathers round the eye
and ear-coverts pale rusty red, the latter with paler shaft-streakscheeks^ and throat pale rusty fulvous ; fore
neck and remainder o f under surface o f body pale ashy olive ; the chest somewhat washed with rusty ; sides
of the body and flanks rather deeper olive ; thighs and under tail-coverts rusty ; under wing-coverts and
axillaries dusky olive with somewhat o f a reddish tinge ; quills below dusky brown, inner edges ashy. . Total
length 4*5 inches, culmen 0 6 , wing 2 ‘35, tail l -75, tarsus 0*85.”
The figures in the Plate are drawn from the original specimen above described, and represent the bird of
the size of life and in two positions. The Marquis Doria has been kind enough to lend us the specimen for
the purpose of figuring in the present work.
[R. B. S.]