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."