A IIiU R fE D U S II ■■»«Hi i II || ||l IffllWjflMM
^LURCEDUS MELANOCEPHALUS, Ramsay.
Black-naped Cat-bird.
JEluraidits melunocephalus, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N . S. W ales, viii. p. 25 (1883). Finscli u. Meyer, Zeitschr.
ges. Orn. ii. p. 394 (1885).
W e have already alluded in the present work to the differences between Murtedus melanolis, from the Aru
Islands, and J®. arfakmnus, from Mount Arfak ; but at the time when we wrote we were unable to convince
ourselves that thbte two species were specifically distinct. We now consider that we were in error, since
we have seen additional examples of both, and now we have a third representative species in melarn-
cephalus from South-eastern New Guinea. Of this latter bird we have seen several specimens collected
by Mr. Goldie and Mr. H. O. Forbes in the Astrolabe Mountains, and by Mr. Hunstein in the Horseshoe
range of the Owen Stanley Mountains.
The present species differs from M . arfaUams by its black lores and chin and in the uniform character
o f the breast and abdomen.
We subjoin a description of an adult male collected by Mr. Hunstein on the Owen Stanley Mountains : - j
Adult male. General colour above grass-green, the upper tail-coverts slightly washed with lighter green ;
the upper mantle varied with ovate spots of ochreous buff in the centre of the feathers ; wing-coverts like
the back the median and greater coverts and the bastard-whig faintly tipped with ashy ochreous huff;
priinary-coverts and quits externally green like the back, the primaries washed with |h iish on the outer web,
the secondaries tipped with ochreous white, less distinct on the primaries; tail-feathers dark green on
the outer web, black internally,'all the feathers tipped with white, increasing in extent towards the outer
ones ; crown of head black, with ovate spots of ochreous buff, smaller on the forehead and nape, the latter
being almost entirely black; hind neck ochreous buff, the feathers margined with black; lores black,
surmounted by a line o f ochreous-buff-spotted feathers; feathers round eye and ear-coverts black, with a line
o f buff-spotted feathers below the e y e ; behind the ear-coverts a line o f whitish down the sides o f the neck;
fore part o f cheeks black, as welt; as the chin; throat and sides o f neck ochreous bnff, mottled with black
edges to the feathers; fore neck and remainder of under surface of body rufescent ochre, with greenish
edges on the feathers of the chest, the breast and abdomen more uniform ; all the feathers with more or less
distinct white shaft-linesI sides o f body and flanks like the, breast, and washed with greenish I thighs dull
greenish I under tail-coverts like the abdomen, with white shaft-lines ; under wing-coverts and axillanes ashy,
tipped with whitish ; quills below dusky, ashy along the inner edge. Total length 1 1 5 iucbes, culmen 1-3,
wing 5'7, tail 4 ‘6, tarsus 1 "7.
The figure in the Plate represents an adult male o f the natural size, drawn from a specimen collected by
Mr. H . ° . Forbes. ^ R ^