HETEROM YIAS CINEREIFRONS. 
Ashy-fronted Flycatcher. 
Pcecilodryas ? cinereif. rotis, Ramsay, P. Z. S. 1875, p. 588. — Id. Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. ii. p. 182. 
Heteromyias cinereifrons, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iv. p. 239 (1879). 
This interesting bird was described by Mr. E. Pierson Ramsay from a specimen shot at Dalrymple’s Gap, 
near Cardwell, Queensland, and was placed by him, with doubt, in the genus Pcecilodryas, from which it has 
lately been removed by Mr. Sharpe, who has made it the type of a new genus, which he calls Heteromyias . 
It is allowed by the latter gentleman to stand very close to Pcecilodryas, a genus instituted by myself in 1865, 
and of which the type is P. cermniventris, figured by me in the ‘ Birds of Australia;’ but the bill is differently 
shaped, being higher at the nostrils than it is broad ; and this peculiarity allies it very closely to the genus 
Metabolus, whose single species, M. rugensis, is apparently confined to the Caroline Islands. Beyond these 
few remarks respecting the scientific history of the present species I am unable to add any thing, its habits 
and economy being at present entirely unknown. In fact, at the precise moment when I write, there exists 
but a single complete specimen of the bird, viz. the type in the Australian Museum at Sydney, a full 
description of which, as given by Mr. Sharpe in his Catalogue, I transcribe: — 
“ Adult . General colour above rusty brown, the head and nape dark ashy grey, shaded slightly with brown 
except on the forehead, which accordingly looks lighter grey ; over the eye a broad streak of light French 
grey, extending to the sides of the nape ; feathers in front of the eye dusky greyish black ; round the eye 
a ring of feathers, blackish where it joins the loral spot before, and the ear-coverts behind ; fore part of 
cheeks and feathers just below the eye white ; ear-coverts rusty brown, blackish just under the eye ; a chin- 
spot and feathers at base of lower mandible greyish black ; throat and centre of breast and abdomen white ; 
chest and fore neck, as well as the sides of the breast, light grey ; the sides of the body and under tail- 
coverts tawny buff; thighs grey; under wing-coverts white, the axillaries tipped with tawny; greater 
series dark ashy, forming a patch on the under wing-coverts ; quills ashy brown below, white at the base 
of both webs ; upper wing-coverts ashy grey, the median and greater series dark brown slightly shaded 
with rusty brown ; bastard wing externally ashy, internally dark brown; primary-coverts uniform dark 
brown ; quills dark brown, paler towards the tips, edged externally with rusty brown, the inner secondaries 
entirely of the latter colour and resembling the back, all the quills but the latter white at base, forming 
a bar across the wing ; upper tail-coverts rufous, the tail-feathers brown, washed on the edges with rusty 
brown, inclining to rufous near their bases, the outer feathers narrowly tipped with white on the inner 
web. Total length 6*3 inches, culmen 07, wing 3*85, tail 2 ’7, tarsus T2.” 
I have availed myself of Mr. Ramsay’s permission to figure the type of this species before its return 
to Sydney ; and in the accompanying Plate I have given two illustrations of the bird (in two positions), 
both of the natural size. 
