FELURGEDU S MELANOTIS (Gray). 
Black-cheeked Cat-bird. 
PtiloriorhyncJius melanotis, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858, pp. 181, 194. — Id. Cat. B. New Gain, pp, 37, 59 
(1859). — Id. P. Z. S. 1861, p. 436 ; Rosenb. Nat. Tijdschr. Nederl. Ind. xxv. p. 236 (1863, pt.). — Id. 
J. f. O. 1864, p. 122 (pt.). — Finsch, Neu-Guiuea, p. 173 (1865). — Rosenb. Reis naar Zuidoostereil. 
p. 47 (1867).— Gray, Hand-1. B. i. p. 294, no. 4338 (1869). — Pelz. Verh. k.-k. zool. -hot. Gesellsch. 
1872, p. 428. — Musschenbr. Dagboek, pp. 212, 241 (1883). — Rosenb. Mitth. orn. Ver. Wien, 1885, 
p. 54. 
Ptilorhynchus melanotis, Schl. Mus. Pavs-Bas, Coraces, p. 118 (1867). — Id. Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk. iv. p. 51 
(1871, pt.). 
Ailurcedus melanotis, Meyer, Sitzb. k. Akad. d. Wissensch. Ixix. pp. 82, 83 (1874). — Gould, B. New Guinea, 
i. pi. 39 (1875). 
JElurcedus melanotis, Elliot, Monogr. Parad. pi. 35 (1873). — Id. Introd. Monogr. Parad. p. xxii(1873, pt.). — Scl. 
Ibis, 1874, p. 416. — Salvad. Ann. Mus. Gen. ix. p. 193 (1876). — Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1878, p. 99. — - 
D’Alb. & Salvad. Ann. Mus. Gen.xiv. p. 114 (1879). — D’Alb. Nuova Guin. p. 588 (1880). — Salvad. Orn. 
Papuasia, ii. p. 671 (1881).— -Id. Voy. ‘ Challenger,’ Birds, p. 82 (1881). — Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. vi. 
p. 383 (1881). — Meyer, Zeitschr. ges. Orn. i. p. 293 (1884). — Salvad. Agg. Orn. Papuasia, ii. p. 166 
(1890). 
This is the largest of the Cat-birds with white tins to the tail. It was discovered in the Aru Islands by 
Dr. Wallace during' his expedition to the Malay Archipelago, and has since been discovered by Baron von 
Rosenberg, Mr. Hoedt, and Dr. Beccari in most of the islands of the Am group — such as Wokan, Trangan, 
and Maikor ; D’Albertis also collected several specimens on the Fly River, in May and June. It is therefore 
one of the many species in Southern New Guinea which prove the relationship between the avifauna of the 
southern portion of the great Papuan Island and that of the Am Archipelago. 
Of the habits of this Cat-bird we know nothing. D’Albertis states that it feeds on fruit, and he found in 
the stomach the same seeds as those devoured by Paradisea novce-guinece, Ptilorhis intercedens, and Cicinnurus 
regius. 
Count Salvadori states that the females are a little smaller than the males and have the ochreous colour 
of the lower parts less decided, while the margins of the feathers of the upper part of the breast are duller 
and show less of a green shade. The reddish colour on the feathers of the head and neck, which is 
sometimes met with, appears to Salvadori to be a sign of youth. D’Albertis describes the colour of the 
soft parts as follows : — “ Bill ashy whitish ; feet ashy ; iris chestnut or coppery red.” 
Adult male (type of species). General colour above bright grass-green, slightly shaded with blue on the 
wing-coverts and primaries ; the median and greater wing-coverts and the secondaries tipped with huffy 
white; quills dull brown on the inner webs; tail dull grass-green, blackish on the inner webs of the 
outer feathers, all the feathers rather broadly tipped with white ; head and neck fulvous, mottled with 
black, the feathers being mostly of the latter colour, with a large oval spot of fulvous near the tip, very much 
larger on the hinder neck ; lores and a line of feathers above and below the eye huffy whitish ; behind the 
eye a bare patch ; ear-coverts black ; rest of the sides of the face huffy white, barred with narrow crescentic 
cross lines of black ; the fore-neck and chest yellowish white, all the feathers dark at base and distinctly 
edged with black, giving a very strongly mottled appearance; rest of under surface of body yellowish buff, 
slightly inclining to fawn-buff, the feathers with narrow whitish shaft-lines, the breast mottled with sub- 
terminal cross lines of blackish ; sides of body washed with green, with rather broad mesial streaks of 
white on the flank-feathers ; under wing-coverts yellowish huff, tinged with green along the edge of the 
wing, many of the abdominal plumes, when lifted, exhibiting a bluish shade underneath, this being also 
seen on the lower surface of the tail. Total length 12 5 inches, culmen T6, wing 665, tail 5T, tarsus T85. 
Adult female. Similar to the male, but more distinctly greenish underneath ; each feather with a terminal 
spot of brighter green, the lower flanks washed with bluish green ; spots on secondaries very large and 
distinct; mantle varied with arrow-shaped central markings of yellowish buff to all the feathers. Total 
length 13’3 inches, culmen T45, wing 6-1, tail 5 2, tarsus T8. 
The figures in the Plate are taken from specimens in the Gould collection, now in the British Museum. 
