Order PASSERES.] 



[Fam. SYLVIID^ 



MYIOMOIEA TOITOI. 



(PIED TIT.) 



Muscicapa toitoi, Garnot, Voy. Coq. i. p. 590, t. xv. fig, 3 (1826) 

 Miro toUo% Gray, in Dieff. Trav. ii., App. p. 191 (1843). 

 Petroica toitoi^ Gray, Voy. Ereb. and Terror, Birds, p. 6 (1844). 

 Myiomoira toitoi^ Reich. Syst. Av. Taf. Ixvii. (1850). 

 Muscicwpa albopectus, Ellman, Zool. 1861, p. 7465. 



Native names. 



Miromiro, Komiromiro, and Ngirungiru. 



d snpvh sericeo-niger : macula frontali conspicua alba : tectricibus alarum plerumque nigris, medianis brunne- 



scentibus : remigibus brunneis, primariis interioribus ad basin albo maculatis^ secundariis magis con- 

 spicue notatis, plagam albam exhibentibus : - cauda nigra, rectricibus tribus exterioribus fere omniiio 

 albis^ basi pogonii interni et apice pogonii externi exceptis nigris : facie lateralis gutture toto et pectore 

 superiore nigris, gula vix brunnescente : corpore reliquo subtus albo, basi pliimarum nigricante : rostro 

 et pedibus nigricanti-brunneis : plantis pedum flavicantibus : iride nigrd. 



5 mari dissimilis : bninnea, subtus albida, hypocbondriis brunnescente lavatis : loris et facie laterali brunneis, 



fulvescente variis. 



Adult male. Head, neck all round, and all the upper parts black ; frontal spot, at the base of the upper 

 mandible, white ; breast and underparts pure white, the black of the fore neck having a sharply defined 

 lower edge ; wing-feathers crossed near their base by an angular patch of white, which is narrow and 

 interrupted on the primaries, broad and continuous on the secondaries ; tail black, the three outer 

 feathers on each side crossed obliquely upwai^ds by a broad bar of white. Iridcs black; bill and tarsi 

 blackish brown ; toes paler, yellow on their inner surface. ' Total length 5 inches ; wing, from flexure, 3 ; 

 tail 2*25 ; bill, along the ridge '4, along the edge of the lower mandible '5 ; tarsus '75 ; middle toe and 

 claw *8; hind toe and claw '65. 



Adult female. Upper surface smoky brown, with a minute frontal spot of white; throat, fore neck, and all 

 the underparts greyish white, more or less clouded with dull smoky brown; wing-feathers blackish 

 brown, a bar across the base of the secondaries and some indistinct marks on the webs of the outer pri- 

 maries fulvous white ; tail black, the three outer feathers on each side barred obliquely with white, as 



in the male. 



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Younff. In the young male the colours arc much duller and browner, and the sharply defined pectoral line 

 is wanting ; but the plumage is sufficiently dififerent from that of the female to distinguish the sexes. 



Obs. The sexes do not present any perceptible diff*erence in size. 



1' 



