OCR Text |
Show 1879.] MR. W. A. FORBES ON THE GENUS MYZOMELA. 265 remigibus olivaceo-limbatis, subalaribus albis ; rostro nigro, pedibus plumbeis. Hab. in insulis Salomonis. This species was obtained by tbe French Expedition to the South Pole ; and the type specimen in the Paris Museum remains, I believe, unique in Europe. M. Oustalet, to whom I wrote for information about it, kindly replies to me, on comparing it with the figure in the Atlas to the 'Voyage:'-"Je trouve dans celle-ci quelques inexactitudes. Les proportions de l'oiseau ont ete un peu exagerees: le noir de la gorge a ete trop etendu et trop marque. L'oiseau type est plus petit, et il a le haut de la gorge seulement noir, le has, vers la poitrine, etant un peu mele de jaune verdatre." M. lafargii is somewhat allied to M. jugularis of the Fijis, but differs from the latter in having the red confined to the top of the head, and in the throat and chest being black. 10. MYZOMELA SCLATERI, sp. n. (Plate XXV. fig. 2.) <5 corpore supra, alis caudaque fusco-nigricantibus, capite saturation, plumis dorsi inferioris apice flavidis ; remigibus, alarum tectricibus et rectricibus externe olivaceo-flavo limbatis; splendide coccinea; corpore subtus griseo-flavido, gutture sordi-diore ; subalaribus et margine interna remigum albis ; rostro pedibus obscuris. Long. tot. circa 4*5, al. 3*65, caud. 1*rostr. *6, tars. *55 (poll. Angl.). Hab. in Nova, Britannia. A few weeks ago Mr. Sclater, after whom I propose to name this new species, lent me for examination a single specimen of it, marked male, which he had recently received in a letter together with two Pachycephalce, from the Rev. G. Brown, C.M.Z.S., of the Wesleyan Mission at present established on the Duke-of-York Islands. The exact locality given on the label is " Palakiiru Island, New-Britain coast." I bave not been able to find Palakiiru Island on any map; but it is probably only an islet lying close to the shores of the larger island. At first I had some doubts as to this individual being adult; but now, from the absence of red feathers on any other part, and from the singularly bright and shining colour of those on the throat, I have little doubt that it has very nearly or quite attained its full plumage. Myzomela sclateri hardly admits of being compared with any other species of the group, the entirely dark upperside-and the red being confined to the throat rendering it quite unlike any species yet known to us. 11. MYZOMELA NIGRITA. Myzomela nigrita, G. R. Gray, P. Z. S. 1858, p. 173; Salvadori P. Z.S. 1878, p. 97. Myzomela erythrocephala, Meyer (nee Gould), Sitzungsber. Wien Akad. Ixx. p. 204 (1874). |