collected in Dutch Neio Guinea. 259 



Accipiter melanoclilamys & A. m. scliistacinus Rotlis. & 

 Hartert, N. Z. xxii. p. 55 (1915). 



a. ^ imm. Gamp 9, Utakwa River, 5500 ft., 26th Jan. 

 1913. [C.B.K.] 



This very interesting example of a rare species had attained 

 about half its adult plumage at the time of its death. As 

 the immature plumage appears to be unknown, it may be 

 worth recording. 



The head and neck are black, with the basal half of the 

 feathers creamy-white ; the maroon collar of the adult is 

 just beginning to appear ; half the feathers of the back are 

 da7'k brown, those of the rump fringed with rufous-chestnut ; 

 many of the quills, both of the primaries and secondaries, 

 are brown on the outer web and mostly white tinged with 

 tawny-rufous on the inner web, while both webs have about 

 eight tolerably wide cross-bars of blackish-brown ; some of 

 the tail-feathers are similarly coloured, but the ground-colour 

 of the inner web is rather less tawny ; the feathers of the 

 fore-neck and sides of the chest are white, blotched with 

 black at the tip, and many of the feathers of the breast and 

 flanks are very similarly marked. The remaining plumage 

 is like that of the adult, except that the new primary quills 

 and tail-feathers are barred on the inner web and the maroon 

 breast-feathers are paler and barred with white. In the fully 

 adult bird, of which I have examined three examples, the 

 primaries show no trace of bars on the inner web and the 

 breast-feathers are uniform maroon, not barred with white. 



1 have examined the type-specimen of A. m. scliistacinus 

 Roths. & Hartert, kindly lent me, and consider that it 

 does not differ from typical A. melanochlamys Salvad., from 

 Arfak. The type of A. m. scliistacinus, a male from Mount 

 Goliath, and a female from the Angabunga River, both 

 in the Tring Museum, are freshly-moulted, fully mature 

 specimens with a greyish bloom over the black plumage 

 of the crown and back. In this respect they differ 

 from a typical male example of A. melanochlamys from 

 Arfak, collected by Dr. Guillemard and figured by Sharpe 

 in Gould's 'Birds of New Guinea' {op. cit.). There is, 



«2 



