RHIPIDURA HYPERYTHRA, Gray. 
Rufous-breasted Fantail Flycatcher. 
Rhipidura rufiventris (nee Vieill.), Verh. Land- en Volkenk. p. 185 (1839-44). — Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 259 (1846). — 
Bp. Consp. i. p. 323 (1850). — Sclater, Journ. Linn. Soc. ii. p. 162 (1858). — Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1S58, 
pp. 176, 192. — Id. Cat. Mainm. etc. New Guinea, pp. 28, 57 (1859). — Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, 
p. 434. — Rosenb. J. f. O. 1864, p. 119. — Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 169 (1865). 
Rhipidura hyperythra, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858, pp. 176, 192. — Id. Cat. Mamm. etc. New Guinea, pp. 28, 57 
(1859). — Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, p. 434. — Rosenb. J. f. O. 1864, p. 119. — Finsch, Neu-Guinea, 
p. 169 (1865). — Gray, Hand-list Birds, i. p. 331, no. 4977 (1869). — Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1873, 
p. 696. — Sharpe, Cat. Birds in Brit. Mus. iv. p. 338 (1879). — Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov, xiv. 
p. 499 (1879). — Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc., Zool. xvi. p. 431 (1882). — Salvad. Orn. Papuasia e delle 
Molucche, ii. p. 65 (1881), iii. App. p. 532 (1882). 
Rhipidura , sp., Gray, Hand-list Birds, i. p. 231, no. 4976 (1869). 
Rhipidura muelleri , Meyer, Sitz. k. Akad. Wien, lxx. p. 502 (1874). — Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov, x. p. 135 
(1877). 
Rhipidura castaneothorax, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, iii. p. 270 (1879), iv. p. 98 (1879). — Salvad. Ibis, 
1879, p. 323. 
This is a very distinct species of Fantail Flycatcher, and is easily recognized by its style of colour on the 
underparts, the chin and cheeks being white, the throat black, and the breast rufous. 
It was first described by S. Muller from Lobo Bay, in New Guinea, but he gave it the name of Rhipidura 
rufiventris , which already belonged to the species from Timor. Count Salvadori states that he could not find 
the type of Muller’s species in the Leiden Museum, and it was apparently exchanged away to the late 
Mr. Gould, as his collection contained a specimen of this bird marked as from Lobo Bay, which is now in 
the British Museum, having been purchased with the rest of the Gould Collection. 
Mr. Wallace subsequently discovered the species in the Aru Islands, and we cannot perceive any difference 
between examples from the last-named locality and from New Guinea, It seems to inhabit the whole of the 
latter island, as Dr. Meyer found it at Rubi, and Signor D’ Albertis on the Arfak Mountains. It was 
afterwards obtained by Mr. Broadbent on the Goldie River, about 40 miles inland from Port Moresby, and 
was named by Mr. Ramsay R. castaneothoraoo. We have, however, examined specimens from this part of New 
Guinea, and can affirm that they are the same as the Aru Island and Lobo birds. Mr. Goldie has forwarded 
a specimen from the Morocco district in the Astrolabe Mountains, where he says it is called by the natives 
“ Urobiagga.” Mr. H. O. Forbes has likewise sent a pair from the Sogeri district in the same range of 
mountains, where he obtained them at an altitude of 2000 feet. 
The following is a description of the type specimen of R. hyperythra in the British Museum : — • 
General colour above slaty grey, a little darker on the crown and sides of the head ; the lores and feathers 
round the eye blackish ; over the eye a distinct white streak, and a second narrow line of white above the 
upper edge of the ear-coverts less distinctly indicated ; cheeks, chin, and moustache white ; centre of throat 
black, widening out upon the lower throat; rest of under surface of body orange-rufous, slightly paler 
towards the lower abdomen and vent; thighs slaty grey ; under wing-coverts pale orange-buff; quills ashy 
below, whitish along the inner webs ; wings above resembling the back, the greater series and secondaries 
brown, washed externally with grey; the primaries entirely brown ; median and greater coverts tipped with 
buff or whitish spots ; tail slaty black, the three outer feathers tipped with white, with an obscure subterminal 
band of dull brown: “bill black, the lower mandible yellow; feet dusky olive” {Wallace), Total length 
6’4 inches, culinen 05, wing 2*8, tail 3'2, tarsus 065. 
The male bird collected by Mr. Forbes has the head blacker than in the female, but otherwise the sexes 
are alike in colour. 
The figures in the Plate represent a male and female of the natural size, drawn from the pair of specimens 
obtained by Mr. Forbes in the Astrolabe Mountains. 
[R. B. S.] 
