24 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ZOOLOGY OF NEW GUINEA, 



Female. —Length. 7-2; wing, 4 in.; tail, 3.7; tarsus, 0-75; 

 bill from forehead, 0*8 ; from angle of mouth, 0*85. 



Only one pair of this species was obtained shot by Mr. Holies on 

 Mount Astrolabe. 



Melanocharis bicolor, Ramsay, P.L.S., N.S.W., Vol. Ill, p. 277. 

 There are several species of this bird in the collection, adult 

 males and females. The whole of the under wing-coverts and 

 axillaries pure silky-white as in the type. 



Sitella albifrons, sp nov. 

 All the head and chest silky- white, including the ear-coverts ; 

 the upper tail-coverts white, most of them with a large lanceolate 

 stripe of black down the centre ; tail blackish brown ; under tail- 

 coverts blackish, broadly margined and tipped with white. 

 Feathers of the rump adjacent to the upper tail-coverts white, the 

 outer three feathers of the tail largely tipped with white, the 

 fourth and fifth very slightly ; wings blackish brown, the first 

 five of the primaries with a small spot of white on the margin 

 of the inner webs, which forms a spot of white on the under 

 surface of the wing, indistinct in some specimens, more distinct in 

 others. Small spot of white on the under wing-coverts at the 

 base of the primaries ; the lower part of the chest and the 

 remainder surface of the body silky-white, with a broad streak of 

 blackish brown down the centre of each feather ; back and rump 

 dark brown, the feather centred with a blackish brown stripe ; 

 bill yellow at the base, black at the tip, under wing-coverts 

 blackish brown ; legs and feet yellow. Young birds are much 

 browner and the white portions washed with ashy. 



Total length about... ... 4-2 



Wing 3-4 



Tail 165 



Tarsus ... ... ... '6 



Bill from forehead ... *5 



Hob. — Table-lands of Mount Astrolabe, about 3000 feet above 

 the sea level ; met with in flocks among the Eucalyptus trees ; 

 distance from the coast 15 miles. Inland high. (Holies.) 



