PIEZORHYNCHUS ME 1)1 I S, Sharpe. 
Coppinger’s Flycatcher, 
Piezorhynckus medius, Sharpe, Rep. Zool. Coll. Voy. H.M.S, ‘ Alert,,' p. 14 (1884). 
The specimen from which the present species was characterized was obtained during the voyage of the 
surveying-ship ‘ Alert,’ by Dr. Coppinger, the naturalist attached to the expedition. He procured a 
male at Port Molle, in Queensland, in the month of May 1888 ; and an examination of the individual 
in question induced us to reconsider the relations of the species of Piezorhynckus, to which it is 
allied. Writing in the year 1879, we had recognized four species of this particular group of 
Flycatchers, viz. P. bermteini from the Island of Salwati, P. nigrimentum from Amboyna and Goram, 
P. trmrgatus from Timor, and P. gouldi from North-eastern Australia. The latter species had previously 
been united with P. trmrgatus, but was separated in 1860 by the late Mr. G. R. Gray ; and in writing 
our account of the ‘ Alert ’ collections we acknowledged our error in uniting with it P. albwentris of 
Gould. 
Dr. E. P. Ramsay, in his latest list (1888) of the Birds of Australia, gives the habitat of P. gouldi 
as from Cape York to the Wide-Bay district of Eastern Australia, as far as the Richmond and Clarence 
Rivers, to New South M ales. P. albwentris is said to occur only in the Gulf of Carpentaria and the 
Cape York district, probably extending to Rockingham Bay. He has apparently overlooked our 
description of P. medius, which is closely allied to P. albwentris, and, like that species, has the upper 
tail-coverts black ; but differs from it in having the sides of the body orange-rufous instead of white. 
P. gouldi has the sides of the body orange-rufous as in P. medius, but has the upper tail-coverts grey. 
No notes on the habits of P. medius have yet been recorded ; but they are doubtless exactly the 
same as those of the allied Australian Flycatchers, described by Mr. Gould. 
Dr. Coppinger describes the soft parts as follows: — “Iris black; bill light grey; legs and feet dark.” 
The figures in the Plate are taken from the typical specimen in the British Museum, and represent 
two male birds of the size of life. 
[R. B, S.] 
