MELANOPYRRHUS ANAIS. 
Orang*e-chesled Starling*. 
Sericulus anais, Less. Rev. Zool. 1844, p. 44. — Bp. Consp. i. p. 349 (1850). — Id. Compt. Rend, xxxvii. p. 831 
(1853). — Sclater, Proe. Zool. Soc. 1857, p. 6. — G. R. Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858, p. 192, 1861, p. 434. — 
Rosenb. Nat. Tijdschr. Nederl. Ind. xxv. p. 234 (1863). — Id. J. f. O. 1864, p. 121. 
Oriolus ? anais, G. R. Gray, Gen. B. App. p. ii (1849). — Id. Cat. B. New Guinea, pp. 26, 57 (1859). 
Pastor nigrocinctus, Cass. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. 1850, p. 68. — Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1857, p. 6. 
Melanopyrrhus anais, Bp. Compt. Rend, xxxvii. p. 831 (1853). — Id. Notes Coll. Delattre, p. 9 (1854). — Sclater, 
Proc. Zool. Soc. 1857, p. 6. — Id. Journ. Linn. Soc. ii. p. 159 (1858). — Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov, 
x. p. 150 (1877), xvi. p. 195 (1880). — Id. Orn. Papuasia e delle Molucche, ii. p. 462 (1881). — Guillemard, 
Proc. Zool. Soc. 1885, p. 644. 
Gracula pectoralis, Wallace, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1862, p. 166, pi. xx. — Sclater, Ibis, 1863, p. 225. — Finsch, Neu- 
Guinea, p. 174 (1865). 
Gracula ( Melanopyrrhus ) anais, G. R. Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (3), x. p. 473 (1862). 
Gracula anais, Wallace, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (3), xi. p. 15 (1863). — Schleg. Mus. P.-B. Coraces, p. 98 
(1867). — Id. Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk. iv. p. 18 (1871). — Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1873, p. 697. — 
Rosenb. Malay. Archip. p. 554 (1879). 
Eulabes anais, G. R. Gray, Hand-list Birds, ii. p. 19, no. 6276 (1870). 
This beautiful form of Starling is peculiar to New Guinea, and appears to be intermediate between the 
Mynahs ( Eulabes ) and the Crested Starlings (. Basilornis ). We have therefore followed Count Salvadori 
in considering it to belong to a separate genus, Melanopyrrhus, which he has located in the vicinity of the 
above-named genera. 
The present species is very rare in collections, even at this date, and for many years it was known only 
by imperfect skins prepared by native hunters, and thus the early descriptions were very inaccurate. In 
1862 Mr. Wallace gave a good description for the first time, accompanied by an excellent figure by 
Mr. Wolf. \ 
The habitat of M. anais appears to he North-western New Guinea and Salwati. Mr. Wallace and most 
recent travellers have met with it near Sorong, and Mr. Bruijn and Dr. Beccari at Rarnoi, Mariati, and 
Dorei-hum. 
We transcribe herewith the description given by Count Salvadori in his great work on the ‘Birds of 
Papuasia,’ as the series examined by him has far exceeded that at our own disposition : — 
Adult. Whole of the head, throat, back, wing-coverts, and abdomen black, the feathers with broad 
margins of glossy green, some of them changing to violet-blue under certain lights ; lower throat and 
upper breast, rump, upper tail-coverts, and lower abdomen ochreous yellow, with an orange tinge ; a 
cervical collar of pale ochreous yellow, produced laterally on both sides of the head into an occipital 
band ; under tad-coverts yellow, the longer ones white with scarcely any yellow ; a white baud on the wing 
in the middle of the quills ; under wing-coverts black ; a hare space round the eye ; feathers of the eyelids 
black; iris yellow; hill and feet pale yellow. 
Young. Similar to the adult, hut with the feathers of the breast and abdomen regularly margined with 
pale yellow ; the cervical collar, rump, and upper tail-coverts paler yellow. 
The figures in the Plate represent an adult specimen in two positions, and are drawn from an example 
lent to us by Dr. Guillemard. 
[R. B. S.] 
