130 Mr. J. H. Gurney on Birds 



I have carefully compared the two specimens of Henico- 

 pernis from New Britain with the male from Waigiou of 

 H. longicauda which is in the British Museum ; and a note 

 of the differences between the two species may serve as a 

 description of H. infuscata. In both the New-Britain spe- 

 cimens the feathers on the crown of the head, occiput, and 

 nape are broader than in the Waigiou bird. The develop- 

 ment of the nuchal feathers is greatest in Lieut. Bichards's 

 New-Britain specimen. In this about six feathers appa- 

 rently form a nuchal crest, of which the central are an inch 

 and a half in length and an inch in breadth, and the others 

 nearly as large. In both the New-Britain specimens the 

 markings on the feathers of the crown of the head, occiput,, 

 and nape are different from those on the corresponding fea- 

 thers of H. longicauda — the white portion of these feathers, 

 instead of forming an edging as in H. longicauda, being 

 limited to the base of the feather and to a white bar crossing 

 the feather, sometimes entirely and in other cases imperfectly, 

 rather more than halfway from its root ; but in the feathers 

 composing the nuchal crest this white bar does not exist. In 

 H. longicauda the scapulars, interscapulars, and wing-coverts 

 are crossed by alternate bands of light and dark brown ; but 

 in H. infuscata all these parts, except the loAver scapulars, 

 are a whole-coloured dark brown, corresponding in tint with 

 the dark bars on the mantle of H. longicauda. In H. infus- 

 cata the lower scapulars are dark brown, with the base and 

 two narrow transverse bars (the latter imperfect in the centre) 

 whitish ; in H. longicauda these feathers show a white base, 

 with eight alternate transverse bars, four of dark and four of 

 light brown, one of the latter forming the tip of the feather 

 and being narrower than the other seven bars, which are of 

 equal dimensions. Both specimens of H. infuscata have 

 three imperfect white transverse bars on the tertials, and two 

 whitish-brown perfect ones on the primaries ; the secondaries 

 have two such bars in one specimen, and three in the other. 

 The effect of these markings is to produce two conspicuous 

 brownish-white bars across the closed Aving, those portions of 

 all the remiges which are not crossed by pale bars being dark 



