Rhipidura rufifrons versicolor Hartlaub and Finsch
Rufous-fronted Fantail
Rhipidura versicolor Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, p. 96. (Type locality, Uap.)
Rhipidura versicolor Gräffe, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 2, 1873, p. 123 (Yap); Sharpe, Cat. Birds British Mus., 4, 1879, p. 320 (Yap); Nehrkorn, Journ. f. Ornith., 1879, p. 402 (Yap); Oustalet, Bull. Soc. Philom. Paris, (7), 5, 1881, p. 76 (Uap); Schmeltz and Krause, Ethnogr. Abth. Mus. Godeffroy, 1881, p. 391 (Yap); Wiglesworth (part), Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 21 (Uap); Büttikofer, Notes Leyden Mus., 15, 1893, p. 78 (Uap); Oustalet (part), Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, (3), 7, 1895, p. 191 (Yap); Hartert, Novit. Zool., 5, 1898, p. 54 (Yap); Bolau, Mitteil. Naturhist. Mus. Hamburg, 1898, p. 54 (Yap); Matschie, Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, pp. 112, 113 (Yap); Dubois, Syn. Avium, 1, 1902, p. 277 (Yap); Reichenow, Die Vögel, 2, 1914, p. 267 (Yap); Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 64 (Mackenzie = Yap); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 66 (Yap); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 176 (Yap).
Rhipidura rufifrons versicolor Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum, 2, 1930, p. 489 (Uap); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 196 (Yap); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 295 (Yap); Mayr and Moynihan, Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 1321, 1946, p. 3 (Yap).
Geographic range.—Micronesia: Caroline Islands—Yap.
Characters.—Adult: Resembles R. r. uraniae, but chin and upper throat white; upper parts darker; abdomen whitish.
The description of the adult given by Hartlaub and Finsch (1872:96) is "Upper parts a rich brown with a slight reddish tinge; forehead bright rufous; upper and under tail-coverts rufous; throat white, margined underneath by an irregular jugular band of pure black; pectoral plumes black, broadly margined with yellowish white; middle of abdomen whitish, sides of a paler olive-brown under wing-coverts whitish; wing-feathers blackish brown; tail feathers brownish black, all largely tipped with white, the four middle ones rufous at the base, the white terminal spots becoming smaller towards the middle; beak fuscous, the under mandible paler except at tip; feet fuscous."
Hartert (1898:54) writes that R. r. saipanensis differs from the bird at Yap "in having the bases of all rectrices rufous, the rump and upper tail-coverts rufous. The sides of the abdomen are not olive-brown, but rufous."
Remarks.—No specimens of the Rufous-fronted Fantail of Yap have been seen by me. On the basis of published descriptions and comments, it appears that the bird is subspecifically distinct from the forms in the Marianas but shows close relationships to them. R. r. versicolor has the chin and throat white; R. r. saipanensis has the chin and part of the throat white and a heavy, white line in the malar region; R. r. mariae has the chin and only a small amount of the throat white and a thinner, white malar stripe; R. r. uraniae has only a small amount of white present on the chin and a very thin, white line in the malar region.