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Show 1876.] OF THE NAVIGATORS' ISLANDS. 495 African Lamprotornis bicolor ! It often goes in little flocks, and feeds much on the same trees frequented by the preceding, and also on a larger berry much patronized by the "Green Doves" (Ptilonopus). It also devours insects, and is subject to the same rapid decay as A. brevirostris. 20. ERYTHRURA CYANOVIRENS, Peale. I obtained this pretty little Finch among the cotton-plants ; but it was rare. It feeds on minute seeds. The young bird is furnished with small caruncles at the base of the bill, and has been made into a new genus by Drs. Finsch and Hartlaub, under the name of Lobiospiza notablis (P. Z. S. 1870, p. 817). The young of the Fijian bird (E. pealei, Hartl.) possesses similar appendages. My son has just procured it at Suva, on Viti Levu ; and we got it in some plenty at Ngila, on Taviuni, in the forest, feeding on high trees bearing berries. 21. PTILONOPUS PEROUSEI, Peale. On one tree (a species of Ficus) in the forest at the back of Upolu, I saw at least thirty pairs of this lovely little Dove, in all stages of plumage, some of which I obtained. 22. PTILONOPUS APICALIS, Bp. Mr. Whitmee (in epistold) informs me that the bird designated by this name is nothing more than the female of the preceding. Drs. Finsch and Hartlaub also, in their 'Ornithologie,' place a mark of doubt (?) before it. Great therefore was m y astonishment when a live bird was brought on board H.M.S. ' Nymphe,' which I at once detected was quite distinct from our Fijian bird, and agreed very well with the description in the ' Ornithologie' of P. apicalis. Subsequently I obtained the loan of the ' Journal des Mus. Godeffroy.' In Heft 1, Tafel 7• No. 2 professes to be a figure of P. fasciatus, but has evidently been taken from a Samoan bird, and consequently represents P. apicalis. The deep orange of the vent and under tail-coverts, (so different from the pale yellow of the Fijian P. fasciatus), is well shown, as is also the bright yellow tip to the tail. This in P. fasciatus is dull grey, and does not extend to the end, the extreme tip being green. The chestnut on the abdomen (entirely wanting in the Fijian bird) is hardly dark enough, or bright enough ; and the black indistinct line which exists at the superior edge of the same is not given ; nor is the pale yellow patch from the chin along the centre of the throat. The magenta colour of the head is not dark enough ; but this is clearly a mistake of the colorist. Another marked difference remains to be noted, the lovely blue-green tips to the wing-secondaries of P. fasciatus are changed in the Samoan bird to a still more lovely bright lilac! and the blue-black patch on the abdomen of the former is changed into an exquisite dark magenta. I now fancy the figure, pl. xi. of the ' Ornithologie,' must have been taken from a Samoan bird (see ante, p. 436). I found P. apicalis abundant, feeding on various wild berries, 33* |