SERICORNIS ARFAKIANA, Salvad. 
Arfak Sericornis. 
Sericornis arfaJciana, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov, vii. p. 962 (1875), xvi. p. 187 (1880). — Id. Orn. 
Papuasia, etc. ii. p. 408 (1881). — Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. vii. p. 306 (1883). 
Although belonging to the same section of the genus Sericornis as S. beccarii, with no dark subterminal 
band on the tail-feathers, the present species nevertheless represents a different division of the genus. The 
species which have the tail marked as above are six in number; but the colour of the throat serves as a good 
distinguishing character between them. Thus S. brutmea has the throat bright rufous, S. citreogularis has it 
yellow, S. frontalis and S. beccarii have it white, while in S. magnirostris and S. arfaJciana the throat is pale 
tawny buff' like the lores and the base of the forehead. 
Sericornis arfaJciana differs from its near ally, S. magnirostris, in its much darker colour and blacker legs ; 
the colour of the upper surface is dark olive-brown instead of pale ashy rufous ; underneath it is deep 
olivaceous in tint, instead of being pale ashy tinged with olive. It is, as yet, only known to inhabit the 
Arfak Mountains in North-western New Guinea. 
The following description of the typical specimen is taken from the British Museum ‘ Catalogue of Birds ’ : — 
“ Adult male (Profi, Arfak ; Bruijn : type of the species). General colour above dark olive- brown, browner 
on the lower back and rump, and rusty brown on the upper tail-coverts ; lesser wing-coverts and median 
coverts like the back; greater coverts darker brown, edged with olive-brown, and with tips of dull fulvous 
forming an indistinct wing-bar ; bastard-wing feathers and primary-coverts blackish ; quills dark brown, edged 
with rusty olive, paler along the margin of the primaries ; tail-feathers dark brown, washed with reddish brown 
on their margins ; crown of the head more rusty brown than the back ; lores and base of the forehead light 
rusty colour, the latter slightly mottled with dusky tips to the feathers ; no eyebrow ; feathers round the eye 
and ear-coverts pale rusty red, the latter with paler shaft-streaks ; cheeks and throat pale rusty fulvous ; fore 
neck and remainder of under surface of body pale ashy olive ; the chest somewhat washed with rusty ; sides 
of the body and flanks rather deeper olive; thighs and under tail-coverts rusty; under wing-coverts and 
axillaries dusky olive with somewhat of a reddish tinge ; quills below dusky brown, inner edges ashy. Total 
length 45 inches, culmen 0 6, wing 235, tail T75, tarsus 0*85.” 
The figures in the Plate are drawn from the original specimen above described, and represent the bird of 
the size of life and in two positions. The Marquis Doria has been kind enough to lend us the specimen for 
the purpose of figuring in the present work. 
[R. B. S.] 
