Order PASSERES.] [Fam. SYLVIID.E. 



MYIOMOIEA MACROCEPHALA. 



(YELLOW-BREASTED TIT.) 



Great-headed Titmouse, Lath. Gen. Syn. ii. pt. 2, p. 557, pi. lv. (1783). 



Partis macrocephalus, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 1013 (1788, ex Lath.). 



Pachycephalusl macrocephalus, Steph. Gen. Zool. xiii. p. 267 (1826). 



JRMpidura macrocephala, Gray, in Dieff. Trav. ii., App. p. 190 (1843). 



Miro forsterorum, Gray, op. cit. ii. p. 191 (1843). 



Miro dieff enbachii, Gray, op. cit. ii. p. 191 (1843). 



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



Petroica dieffenbachii, id. op. cit. p. 6, pi. 6. fig. 1 (1844). 



Tardus minutus, Forst. Descr. Anim. p. 83 (1844). 



Miro macrocephala, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 299 (1850). 



Muscicapa macrocephala, Ellman, Zool. 1861, p. 7465. 



Muscicapa minuta, Ellman, torn. cit. p. 7465. 



Myiomoira dieffenbachii, Gray, Hand-1. of B. i. p. 229 (1869). 



Myiomoira macrocephala, id. op. cit. p. 229 (1869). 



Native names. 

 The same as those applied to the preceding species. 



J similis M. toitoi, sed macula frontali alM minore et pectore flavido distingueudus. 



2 similis feminse M. toitoi, sed pectore flavido lavato. 



Adult male. Similar to M. toitoi, except in the colour of the under surface, which is pale lemon-yellow 

 instead of being white, deepening to orange where it meets the black of the fore neck, and fading away 

 into yellowish white on the vent and under tail-coverts ; the white frontal spot, moreover, is somewhat 

 less distinct than in the former bird. 



Female. Similar to the female of M. toitoi, but having the breast and abdomen washed with pale lemon- 

 yellow, and the wing-bar tinged with fulvous. 



Young. In the young of both sexes the yellow is reduced to a scarcely perceptible tinge, and in some 

 examples is altogether wanting. In the young male the breast is obscurely mottled with brown, and in 

 the young female these markings extend to the flanks also. 



Obs. Individuals vary much both in size and in the tone of their colouring. A specimen in the Canterbury 

 Museum measures only 4' 75 inches in length, corresponding, both in size and plumage, with the type 

 of Mr. G. R. Gray's M. dieffenbachii ; and I have received equally small examples from the Chatham 

 Islands ; but, after a very careful comparison, I am unable to admit the validity of the supposed new 

 species. 



The Yellow-breasted Tit is the South-Island representative of the preceding species, which is 



