416 The American Naturalist. [May, 
too with all its adornments harmonizes with, indeed, forms a 
part of the gay green wood. 
A very interesting little group of passerine birds belonging 
to the family of Prionopidae are the Rectes, of which there are 
several species common to New Guinea and the adjacent 
islands. Near his camp at Narinuma on the southern side of 
the mainland, Mr. Denton first saw “ brown birds with black 
heads” sitting close together and keeping up a constant 
whistle, very soft and prolonged. The sound he describes as 
not unlike a steamboat whistle a great distance away. It 
seemed almost impossible for a small bird to produce such a 
sound. All travellers have met one or another of the several 
varieties in different parts of the island. Probably Mr. Den- 
ton’s bird was Rectes cirrhocephalus or dichrous, if these are not 
one and the same bird. The former, indeed both species, 
while not brilliantly clad, possesses a singularly rich golden- 
brown dress contrasted with the jet black of the head, wings 
and tail. When the bird flies through the sunshine this warm 
plumage lights up with wonderful effect. Then the entire 
body is displayed, and is seen both above and below to be full 
‘of all,the tints from maroon to orange. Black again appears 
on the throat extending well down on the breast. The bill 
is also black. The tail, black above and below, is long and 
narrow. <A whitish feather might be traced on the inner 
wing of the skins examined. The female is almost the coun- 
terpart of the male, the points of difference being so slight as 
to make identification of the sex in life no easy matter. The 
bird is between nine and ten inches in length. 
A somewhat larger species is to be noticed in Rectes uropygia- 
lis,the Rufous and black wood Shrike, whose favored habitat is 
the little island of Mysol, lying a considerable distance to the 
west of New Guinea. In this instance, similar colors and a 
similar disposition of colors prevail, with the black, however, 
running a little farther upon the body. The head is ruffled 
by a longitudinal crest of black feathers as in the preceding. 
But in place of the ruddy glow of the foregoing, we have 
in Rectes cerviniventris, or Fawn-breasted Wood Shrike a sub- 
dued olive or even ashy gray for the general coloring. On 
