REGENT-BIRD. 
reading or disregarding these, and then Gould added as a new species a bird 
supposed to have come from Tasmania, purely on geographical grounds. This 
was rectified as soon as Gould found out it did not Live in Tasmania. 
Then the Lambert drawings came to light and a figure of Turdits meliniLS 
Latham was not determined by Gray, but Strickland and Gould conjectured 
it to be an immature of this species. 
I here quote Latham’s description : 
“ Yellow-Bellied Thr(ush). Size of a Missel TlirusTi ; biU pale red; 
tongue bristly; legs pale red; head, hind-part of the neck and sides of 
the breast dusky-black; back and wing-coverts greenish-brown ; breast and 
belly olive-yellow; chin, fore-part of the neck and vent white ; quills olive- 
brown, the lesser ones barred with black; tail olive above and pale 
beneath; at the back of the neck are transverse black marks, and between 
that and the sides of the breast a few sagittal marks. Inhabits iVem South 
Wales; is migratory, coming in the spring for the purpose of incubation, 
and departing in autuimi.” 
On account of the high authority of Gould the name melinus was used 
for this bird, though apparently scarcely a word applies to any specimen yet 
seen. When Sharpe examined the Watling drawings he at once rejected the 
name from the examination of the figure and revived Lewin’s name, and there 
can be no question as to the correctness of this conclusion. As noted in this 
work, Vol. IX., p. 168, 1921, Campbell has written : “ There seems no doubt 
that Wathng's figime (of Turdus melinus Latham) was intended for the Yellow- 
bellied Fig-Bird {Spkecotheres flaviventris Gould),” 
No subspecies were named until in my “ Reference List ” in 1912 I 
arranged: 
Sericulus chrysocephalus chrysocepJialus (Lewin). 
New South Wales. 
Sericulus chrysocephalus rothschildi Mathews. 
Differs from S. c. chrysocephalus in the richer orange-red coloration of the 
head and the brighter colour on the wings, and the blue-black coloration of 
the back and under-surface. Blackall Ranges, South Queensland.” 
Queensland. 
These were unchanged in my 1913 “ List,” but in 1915 Campbell wrote: 
“Mr. E.M. Cornwall, R.A.O.U., presented me with a skin of a male Regent- 
Bird (Sericulus chrysocephalus) taken above the line of Capricorn, in the mountain 
range behmd Mackay. The furthest north recorded for this species is the 
Mackenzie River (Rockhampton district). Mr. Cornwall states that Regent- 
Birds are fairly numerous in the locality just mentioned. In comparing the 
specimen with birds from New South Wales, it will be observed that the former 
357 
