POMAREA CASTANEI VENTRIS. 
Chestnut-bellied Flycatcher. 
Monarclia castaneiventris. Yen’. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1858, p. 304. — Gray, Birds Trop. Isl. of the Pacific Ocean, 
p. 19 (1859).— Id. Hand-list of Birds, i. p. 320, no. 4793 (1869).— Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, etc. iii. App. 
p. 529 (1882). 
Pomarea castaneiventris, Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. iv. p. 435, pi. xi. fig. 2 (1879). Tristr. Ibis, 1879, p. 439. 
Pomarea ? castaneiventris, Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, etc. ii. p. 11 (1881). 
Though described by M. Verreaux in 1858, the real home of the present species has only recently been 
ascertained for certain. For many years its habitat was recorded as “ Oceania bat so unlike was it to any 
Oceanic species of Flycatcher, that, in the ‘Catalogue of Birds,’ the latter locality was regarded as doubtful. 
Since that book was written, however, the bird has been met with in the Solomon Islands, thus fixing its 
habitat beyond a doubt. Capt. Richards procured it at Makira Harbour in San Cristoval, and Mr. Ramsay 
has received it from his collectors in the Solomon Islands. The latter gentleman has also described a 
nearly allied species as P. rufocastanea, which was considered by Count Salvador! to be identical with 
P. castaneiventris ; but after comparing the two species, we consider them to be separable, and our 
readers will find the distinguishing characters noted under the heading of the former bird. 
The following is a copy of the description of the adult male given in the ‘ Catalogue of Birds,’ and drawn 
up from the type in the British Museum : — 
“ General colour above glossy black ; wings black, the quills somewhat browner ; tail black ; sides of 
face, sides of neck, throat, and fore neck glossy black like the upper surface; remainder of under 
surface of body chestnut ; under wing-coverts and axillaries chestnut, those near the edge of the wing 
black ; quills ashy black below, whitish along the edge of the inner web. Total length 7 inches, culmen 07, 
wing 3’6, tail 3, tarsus 0 75.” 
The female differs from the male in being iron-grey instead of purplish black ; the breast and abdomen 
are dark chestnut as in the male, but the throat is iron-grey. 
The figures in the Plate are drawn from a pair of birds lent to us by Mr. E. P. Ramsay ; they represent 
a male and female of the natural size. 
[R. B. S.] 
