EACHTCEPHALA 1FTATTA MEM ST S , Mrer.
PACHYCEPHALOPSIS HATTAMENSIS.
H attam Thickhead.
Pachycephala hattamensis, Meyer, Sitz. k. Ak. Wissensch. zu Wien, lxix. p . 391 (1 8 7 4 ).—Salvad. Ann. Mus.
Civ. Gen. x. p. 142 (18 7 7 ).— Oust. Bull. Soc. Philom. P aris, 1877.
Pachycephala haltamensis (e rro r e ), Sclater, Ibis, 1874, p. 417.
Pachycephalopsis hattamensis, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genov, xv. p . 48, no. 47 (1 8 7 9 ).—Id . Orn. Papuasia &c.
ii. p. 236 (1881).
T h e shorter tail and longer tarsi in this species have been considered by Count Salvadori sufficient to
separate the bird generically from the genus Pachycephala; and although I was at first disposed to doubt
the admissibility o f adopting his genus Pachycephalopsis for the species, I am now inclined to think that he
was right in effecting this separation. Unfortunately, before I had taken this view, the printing o f the Plate
had been finished; and hence the discrepancy o f the name on the latter with that at the head o f the present
article.
As far as we know, the present species is only found in North-western New Guinea, having been
discovered in the district of Hattam by Dr. Meyer; and it has been met with in the same country and on
the Arfak Mountains by the Italian travellers D ’Albertis and Beccari, There would appear to be no
difference in the sex es; but in the young birds, according to Count Salvadori, the colour is browner and
more white on the abdomen, and the external aspect o f the quills is rufous.
I add a translation o f the description given by the last-named author in his work on the Birds o f New
Guinea:—Head, neck, and sides o f the head ashy; lores white; back and rump greenish olive; chin and
throat white; lower throat, breast, and abdomen olive-yellow, duller on the lower throat and the breast;
quills dusky, externally margined with brownish rufous; the upper wing-coverts dusky, margined with
olivaceous; under wing-coverts rufous; upper tail-coverts and tail brownish rufous; under tail-coverts
pale brown ; the shafts o f the tail-feathers extending a little beyond the web.
Signor D ’Albertis states that the iris is chestnut, the bill black, and the feet dusky.
The figures in the Plate represent a pair o f birds o f the natural size. They are drawn from the typical
specimen kindly lent to me by Dr. Meyer.
[R. B. S.]