Order PASSERIFORMES.] 



[Family MTJSCICAPIDiE. 



PSEUDOGEEYGONE SYLVESTRIS. 



(BUSH WARBLER.) 



Gerygone sylvestris, Potts ; Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. L, p. 50. 



I could not believe that so careful an observer of birds as the late Mr. Potts would 

 be mistaken in distinguishing a new bird, and that was why I retained his Gerygone 

 sylvestris in my list, although at that time there was no preserved specimen in existence 

 by which to test or verify his description. This omission has now been supplied. In 

 the collection of birds brought home to Vienna by the late Mr. Reischek there was a skin 

 which has been identified as the true G. sylvestris. A figure of it is given in the Annals 

 of the Hofmuseum, Vienna (vol. xvii., 1902, p. 305, Plate xii., fig. 1), accompanied by a full 

 description. 



This bird, to judge by the figure, has a general resemblance to P. flaviventris, but is 

 slighter in its form, and it is further distinguished by having brown eyes instead of red. 



Dr. von Lorenz, in an account of the New Zealand birds brought to Europe by the 

 late Mr. Reischek, devotes a passage to it, of which the following is a translation : — 



Pseudogerygone sylvestris. — There are two skins which agree on the whole with Pott's diagnosis 

 of this species, with the exception of the character of the upper tail-coverts ; and probably it happened 

 that, in the specimen described by Potts, the tail-coverts were not adequately covered by the feathers of 

 the back, so that their grey basal half became visible ; in fact, all the feathers of the rump are grey 

 at the base. The marking of the tail-feathers also does not exactly correspond with the description, 

 but seems generally to vary. Taking, the two specimens in question, in one of them the two outermost 

 tail-feathers have white spots on both webs, whereas in the other the tail-feathers, on each 

 side, next to the middle one, have no white subterminal spot on the inner vane, but at this part are 

 only of a paler brown. The general colouring of the upper parts in these birds is much darker than 

 in Pseudogerygone flaviventris and may be described as olive-brown, only getting lighter towards the tail, 

 and becoming yellowish-olive. The abdomen is pure white, and the spots are very pale cream. 



The male is slightly larger in all its measurements than the female. 



Beischek heard the notes of this bird — presumed them to be the bird described by Potts, and 

 reported accordingly to Buller — in Bushy Sound as far back as 1884 ; but it was not till 1887 that 

 this indefatigable collector succeeded in securing the two specimens mentioned above in the neigh- 

 bouring Chalky Sound. 



PSEIJDOGEEYGON E A L B ( ) F R ( ) N T A T A . 



(CHATHAM-ISLAND WAEBLER.) 



Gerygone albofrontata, Gray ; Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. L, p. 49. 



Of this rare species, now on the borderland of extinction, if it has not already gone, I possess 

 two specimens— male and female— for which I am indebted to Dr. H. 0. Forbes, who obtained 

 them during his last expedition to the Chatham Islands. 



