_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.
=Rhipidura rufifrons kubaryi= Finsch