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Show 670 MR. P. L. SCLATER O N BIRDS [June 18, XII. SCIURUS PUSILLUS. (Plate XLI.) Sciurus pusillus, Geoffroy apud Desmarest, M a m m . p. 337, pl. lxxvii. fig. 2(1820). *Macroxus kuhlii, Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, xx. p. 433(1867). Hab. Guiana ; Brazil. Length about 4*50 inches, of tail-vertebrae 3 inches. Two upper premolars. Upper parts greyish olive, the hairs dusky, very minutely tipped with pale fulvous ; lower parts only slightly paler; tail black, washed with whitish or pale yellow. I was not able to ascertain the type of Geoffroy's S. pusillus in the Paris Museum ; but there can hardly be a doubt of its identity with specimens standing under that name in the British museum, and with the types of Gray's Macroxus kuhlii. All these are supposed by Mr. Allen to be merely very young individuals of S. cestuans1, in spite of Buffon's observations on the development of the reproductive organs in the type of tS1. pusillus2. The British-Museum specimens, however, agree in size with Buffon's and Desmarest's descriptions, and are not yet quite adult, as shown by their skulls and teeth ; moreover the two specimens examined differ from £. cestuans in the possession of two upper premolars. Their very small size and the nearly uniform greyish olive of both their upper and lower parts prevent their being confounded with any other species known to me. The type of M. kuhlii, collected in Brazil by Castelnau, merely differs in having a white spot at the root of each ear, and in the extreme tips of the hairs of the tail being white instead of pale fulvous. 2. O n a third Collection of Birds made by the Rev. G. Brown, C.M.Z.S., in the Duke-of-York Group of Islands and its vicinity. By P. L. S C L A T E R , M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Society. [Eeceived June 11, 1878.] (Plate XLII.) I have now the pleasure of submitting to the Society a third3 collection of birds made by our Corresponding Member the Rev. J. Brown, in the group of islands known generally as the Duke-of-York- Islands, and on the adjacent islands of New Britain and New Ireland. The collection was forwarded from Port Hunter, the missionary station in the Duke-of-York group, on the 24th of February last by a small trading-steamer bound for Hongkong. It contains a series 1 Torn. cit. p. 759. » Hist. Nat, Suppl. vii. p. 264. * For notices of two previous collections, see P. Z. S. 1877, p. 96, and 1878, |
