Birds from British New Guinea. 381 



yellow; beak black; feet yellow/' Length 112 mm,, wiug 

 83, tail 44, beak 18*5, tarsus 15. 



Three females : " Mt. Scratchley at 12,200 feet, Oct. 1st- 

 5th, 1896 ; contents of stomach, insects." One spirit- 

 specimen. 



Apart from the shortness and straightness of the bill, this 

 bird is structurally a SitteUa, and, were it not for its very 

 erratic colouring, its bill would hardly prevent it finding a 

 home in that genus. But on the ground that so wide a 

 departure from the characteristic sobriety in colours of the 

 Sittellas, and indeed of the Creepers generally, argues 

 physical differences not apparent to the eye, it appears to 

 me advisable to provide a separate genus for the present 

 bird. 



Fam , Meliphagid^. 



19. Meliornis schistacea, sp. nov. 



Above brown, slightly washed with ash-grey ; feathers of 

 head and mantle with obscure fuscous shaft-streaks ; below 

 ashy brown ; chin and throat mottled with greyish-white 

 tips ; abdomen obscurely streaked with the same ; tips over 

 vent and under tail-coverts purer white ; lores and cheeks 

 minutely mottled with white tips ; ear-coverts greyish brown ; 

 wings and tail brown, paler below ; two outer rectrices 

 largely tipped with brownish grey ; under wing- coverts 

 brown j thighs paler brown : bill brown-black ; tarsi and toes 

 horn-blue. Length 155 mm., wing 7Q, tail Q7, culmen 

 (estimated) 14, tarsus 22. 



This Honey-eater, described from a spirit-specimen, has 

 all the structural characters of a Meliornis, yet I am by no 

 means satisfied that it can be properly placed in that genus. 

 The general habit of the bird and its total want of bright 

 colouring militate much against it ; the bill, however, in this 

 example is so much injured (the upper mandible being 

 half blown away) that I prefer to wait for a more perfect 

 specimen before proposing generic distinction for it. 



20. Ptilotis sibisibina, sp. nov. 



Male. Head and neck above brown, washed with olive- 



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