ELF R (E l M S MELANOCEPHALUS, Ramsay. 
Black-naped Cat-bird. 
Mlurcedus melanocephalus, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. viii. p. 25 (1883). — Salvad. Ibis, 1884, p. 354/ — 
Finsch u. Meyer, Zeitschr. ges. Orn. ii. p. 394 (1885). — lid. Ibis, 1886, p. 258. — D’Hamonv. Bull. Soc. 
Zool. France, 1886, p. 511. — Sharpe, in Gould’s Birds of New Guinea, i. pi. 42 (1888). — Salvad. A gg. 
Orn. Papuasia, ii. p. 166 (1890). — Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xiv (1894). — Salvad. Ann. 
Mus. Civ. Genov. (2) xvi. p. 114 (1896). 
This is the representative of ZEluroedus melanotis in South-eastern New Guinea, where it inhabits the Owen 
Stanley Mountains. It has occurred in Mr. Goldie’s collections from the Astrolabe Range, and the late 
Carl Hunstein procured specimens in the Horse-shoe Range, while Dr. H. O. Forbes met with it in the 
Sogeri District, and Dr. Loria at Moroka. 
EE. melanocephalus belongs to the same section of the genus ZEluroedus as ZE, melanotis and ZE. arfakiarus, 
and is very closely allied to the former, from which it differs in the greater amount of black on the sides of 
the face, and in the chin, lores, and the fore part of cheeks being black. The crown of the head is blacker, and 
the ovate spots of huff are fewer in number and consequently much more distinct. The breast and abdomen 
are of a deeper ochre colour, and the dusky margins to the feathers are much less pronounced. The light spots 
on the wing-coverts are apparently variable in extent, and are sometimes absent altogether. Thus Dr. Meyer 
described the wing-coverts as uniform, and Count Salvadori has drawn attention to this apparent discrepancy 
between Dr. Meyer’s statement and the bird figured by me in Gould’s 4 Birds of New Guinea.’ He has, 
however, recently found the same differences in specimens sent by Dr. Loria, and in the two examples in 
the British Museum the size of the spots on the wing-coverts varies considerably. The fact that my 
description and figure given in the above-mentioned work did not entirely correspond, as Count Salvadori 
has pointed out, is due to the fact that the specimen figured (from Dr. Forbes’s collection) is not the one 
described in the text, which is from Hunstein’s collection. 
Adult male. General colour above grass-green, the upper tail-coverts slightly washed with lighter green ; 
the upper mantle varied with ovate spots of ochreous buff in the centre of the feathers; wing-coverts like 
the back, the median and greater coverts and the bastard-wing faintly tipped with ashy ochreous buff; 
primary-coverts and quills externally green like the back, the primaries washed with bluish on the outer web; 
the secondaries tipped with ochreous white, less distinct on the primaries; tail-feathers dark green on 
the outer web, black internally, all the feathers tipped with white, increasing in extent towards the outer 
ones; crown of head black, with ovate spots of ochreous huff, smaller on the forehead and nape, the latter 
being almost entirely black ; hind-neck ochreous huff, the feathers margined with black ; lores black, 
surmounted by a line of ochreous-buff-spotted feathers ; feathers round eye and ear-coverts black, with a line 
of buff-spotted feathers below the eye ; behind the ear-coverts a line of whitish down the sides of the neck ; 
fore part of cheeks black, as well as the chin ; throat and sides of neck ochreous buff, mottled with black 
edges to the feathers ; fore-neck and remainder of under surface of body rufescent ochre, with greenish 
edges on the feathers of the chest ; the breast and abdomen more uniform ; all the feathers with more or less 
distinct white shaft-lines; sides of body and flanks like the breast, and washed with greenish; thighs dull 
greenish ; under tail-coverts like the abdomen, with white shaft-lines ; under wing-coverts and axillaries ashy 
tipped with whitish ; quills below dusky, ashy along the inner edge : “ bill greenish white ; feet greyish 
green ; iris hazel” (L. Loria'). Total length 11*5 inches, culmen 1*3, wing 5 *7, tail 4*6, tarsus 1*7. 
The figure in the Plate represents an adult male of the natural size, drawn from a specimen collected by 
Dr. H. O. Forbes. 
