AMBLYORNIS FLAVIFRONS, Roths ch . 
Yellow- fronted Gardener Bower-bird. 
Amblyornis Jiavifrons, Rothschild, Novit. Zool. ii. p. 480 (1895). —Id. op. cit. iii. pi. i. figs. 3, 4 (1896). 
This distinct species of yellow-crested Bower-birds was described by the Hon. Walter Rothschild in 1895 
from a specimen in his collection from Dutch New Guinea. He has now two additional specimens in the 
Tring Museum, and there can be no doubt that it is distinct from the two other species of Amblyornis. The 
whole crest is more yellow than in A. inornata and A. subalaris, and this colour is continued down to 
the base of the hill, whereas in the other two species the forehead is brown like the back and the colour 
of the crest is orange. Mr. Rothschild further calls attention to the fact that the plumes of the crest in 
A. Jiavifrons, although very long and slender, have united webs like an ordinary feather, whereas in the 
other two species the webs are decomposed and each feather consists of a bundle of thin hair-like filaments. 
Again, as Mr. Rothschild observes, the colours of the underparts are distinctly separated at the chest in 
A. Jiavifrons, while in A. inornata the colour of the chest fades gradually towards the vent, and in A. subalaris 
the underparts are of a uniform brown, slightly spotted wfith buff. 
The following is a description of the type-specimen in Mr. Rothschild’s collection : — 
General colour above dark brown, a little more rufescent on the lower back and rump ; wing-coverts 
like the back ; quills aud tail dusky brown, externally washed with olive ; crown of head from the base of 
the forehead bright orange-yellow, including the enormous crest ; the shafts of the crest-feathers lemon 
yellow towards the base ; lores and sides of crown dark sooty brown, as well as the sides of the face and 
throat, shading off into lighter brown on the fore-neck and chest; remainder of under surface of the body 
light cinnamon-brown; axillaries cinnamon; under wing-coverts pale cinnamon; quills dusky below, 
yellowish along the inner web. Total length 8 inches, culmen 0'9, wing 5*2, tail 3*3, tarsus T3. 
The lower figure represents the typical example of A. Jiavifrons of the natural size- 
AMBLYORNIS INORNATA, Sold. 
I have taken the present opportunity to give a figure of the male of this species, in full plumage, which has 
been discovered since the original Plate was drawn. For more than twenty years no yellow-crested bird had 
been received from the Arfak Mountains, the home of A. inornata ; and I felt so convinced that the sexes 
were alike in colour, that I separated the southern form, A. subalaris, as a distinct genus, which I called 
Xanthochlarnys (Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xv). It seems, however, that the male birds in collections 
received before 1894 must all have been young or not in full plumage, for when the adult male was 
discovered it turned out to have a magnificent orange crest, as was proved by Dr. Meyer from a specimen 
received by the Dresden Museum (Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xviii). 
Since then fully adult males, in nuptial plumage, have been received by the Hon. Walter Rothschild not 
oidy from x4rfak, but from the Owen Stanley Mountains in South-eastern New Guinea, where it has been 
discovered on Mt. Victoria and in the Eafa district between Mts. Alexander and Bellamy. There can 
therefore be no doubt that the following synonyms also belong to A. inornata : — 
Amblyornis mnsgravii, Goodwin, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1889, p. 451. 
Amblyornis macgregorice, De Vis, Ann. Rep. Coll. Brit. New Guinea, p. 61 (1890). — Id. Colonial Papers, no. 103, 
p. 113 (1890). — Id. Ibis, 1891, p. 37. — Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. (2) x. p, 822 (1891). — • 
Id. Aggiunte Orn. Pap. iii. p. 243 (1891). 
Amblyornis musgravianus, Goodwin, Ibis, 1890, p. 153. 
Xanthochlarnys musgravianus, Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xiv (1894). 
It should be noted that the form of the playing-ground as given by Mr. Goodwin is totally different from 
that sketched by Dr. Beceari. 
