GENUS RHIPIDURA. . 89 
Crown, hind neck and mantle and back olive-brown, 
the latter somewhat tinged with rufous, the rump darker, 
upper tail-coverts, tail, flanks, abdomen, thighs and under 
tail-coverts sooty black, the outermost tail-feathers with 
a very slight indication of a white tip; lesser wing-coverts 
and some of the median blackish, tipped with white, rest 
of the wing-coverts and all the quills smoky brown, nar- 
rowly fringed with paler brown on the outer webs; under 
wing-coverts sooty brown, tipped with white; chin, cheeks, 
entire throat, front and a broad superciliary stripe pure 
white, the latter bordered at its upper edge with deep 
black, strongly contrasting with the olive-brown crown; 
lores, a streak underneath the eye, and ear-coverts sooty 
black; chest and breast pure black with a large heart- 
shaped, pure white spot towards the end of each feather, 
only the upper region of the chest the white spots are 
wanting on some feathers, while they are smaller and 
more drop-shaped on the others. Bill black, lower man- 
dible white, blackish at the tip, feet dark brown. Wing 
8 em, tail (incomplete) 9,8, outermost pair 8, tarsus 2,4, 
culmen 1,5. 
This form might be considered to be a very old stage 
of RB. threnothorax, in which the whole lower surface had 
become entirely black, but the black tip to the lower 
mandible shows that the bird cannot be very old, more- 
over the species threnothorax is not known as yet to 
live on the Aru Islands, In the British Museum I had 
the opportunity of seeing a specimen from Aru, which is 
somewhat paler brown on breast and abdomen than our 
typical specimen, and I think not to be wrong when 
considering the lower surface in the immature stages to 
be darker than in &. threnothorax, and more approaching 
the young of A. maculipectus. 
51. Rhipidura maculipectus G. R. Gray. 
Rhipidura maculipectus G. R. Gray, P. Z. S. 1858, p. 176; Sharpe, 
Cat. B. Br. Mus. IV, p. 326; Salvad. Orn. Pap. II, p. 56 (1881). 
INotes from the Leyden Museum, Vol. XV. 
