DICTUM TRISTRAMI, Sharpe. 
Tristram’s Flower-pecker. 
Dicceum tristrami , Sharpe, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1883, p. 579. 
This peculiarly coloured Flower-pecker was lent to us by Canon Tristram, and as we had every reason to 
believe it to be hitherto undescribed, we attached to it our friend’s name in recognition of his many 
services to ornithology. The species was discovered by Lieut. Richards in Makira Harbour, in San Cristoval, 
one of the Solomon Islands. 
It is not necessary to compare Tristram’s Flower-pecker with any other members of the genus Dicceum, 
for its style of colouring is quite unique, and does not ally it with any of the species known up to the present 
time. 
The following is a description of the type specimen, which is in Canon Tristram’s collection : — 
Adult male. General colour above chocolate-brown, the mantle slightly streaked with a few hoary whitish 
margins to the feathers ; wing-coverts darker chocolate-brown than the back ; bastard wing, primary-coverts, 
and quills blackish brown, the inner secondaries chocolate-brown like the back ; upper tail-coverts and tail 
blackish brown, contrasting sharply with the back ; head brown, but mottled with blackish -brown centres to 
the feathers, the plumes of the forehead and vertex margined with hoary whitish ; a line of feathers abov e the 
eye and ear-coverts hoary white, the latter slightly mottled, with brown bases ; lores, eyelid, fore part of 
cheeks, and base of chin blackish ; hinder cheeks, throat, and fore neck hoary white, with brown bases to the 
feathers ; sides of neck like the back ; centre of breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts pure white, the sides 
of the body ashy ; sides of upper breast brown, with hoary whitish edges to the feathers ; axillaries and under 
wing-coverts white ; quills dusky below, ashy whitish along the edge of the inner web ; “ bill black ; feet black ; 
iris grey ” (Richards). Total length 3‘5 inches, culmen 0'45, wing 23, tail T15, tarsus 055. (Mas. H. B. 
Tristram .) 
The Plate represents the individual above described, of the natural size, in two positions. 
[R. B. S.] 
