102 Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-G-rant on Birds 



(Sharpe), the wing averaging about 125 mm. as compared 

 with 115 mm. in the Aru bird. 



The females are, however, quite distinct, the head, throat, 

 and fore-neck of the present subspecies being dull orange- 

 rufous tinged with brownish instead of sooty-black, and the 

 rest of the underparts bright cinnamon-rufous. 



Our series of younger males confirms the differences 

 in plumage already pointed out by Dr. van Oort, but 

 there has evidently been some confusion over the marked 

 difference between the plumage of the adult male and female. 

 Birds marked as " $ " in his list of specimens are referred 

 to lower down in the text as " Younger birds Nos. 286 & 

 297." These are no doubt fully adult females. 



Messrs. Rothschild and Hartert add to the confusion by 

 stating that in the adult female only " the throat and jugu- 

 lum " are black, whereas in the male the entire breast and 

 part of the abdomen are pure black. The specimens they 

 refer to as females are evidently less mature males in which 

 the sex has been wrongly determined. 



This is proved by our series of eight younger males (Nos. 

 149, 191, 357, 837, 845, 1016, 1020, 1383). It is only in 

 the three most adult male birds, No. 15 from the Mimika 

 River and two examples from the Setakwa River, that the 

 black on the breast extends towards the belly. 



The young female has the back reddish-brown instead of 

 chestnut, and the throat and fore-neck cinnamon like the 

 rest of the underparts. 



P. meridionalis (Sharpe), from British New Guinea, is a 

 closely allied but still larger form, with the wing in male 

 examples over 130 mm. in length. The female is at present 

 unknown to me, but it seems possible that the bird described 

 as RJiectes phceocephalus Reich enow [c/". Orxi. Mona^sb. viii. 

 p. 187 (1900)], from the Bailalla River, South-east New 

 Guinea, may represent the female of P. meridionalis, or it 

 may be referable to P. hrunneiceps (D'Alb* & Salvad.). The 

 typcrspecimen of R. phwoceplialus from the Bailalla River, 

 prqcurpd by E. Weiske, is in the Briti4^ !^Iuseum, 



