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Show 1877.] DUKE OF-YORK-ISLAND, ETC. 103 cc This short description of the plumage is quite sufficient to show that the New-Ireland bird is truly G. aspasia; the rather more golden shade of the crown is certainly too slight to be of any importance. The steel-blue throat is so faintly shaded with lilac that it shows its affinities to be rather with the Dorey type than with the Popo bird. " I shall now give the measurements, that they may be compared with two specimens, one from Dorey, and one from Mysol, in the British Museum. Length. Culmen. Wing. Tail. Tarsus. in. in. in. in. in. New Ireland 4*2 0*65 2*35 1*7 0*65 Dorev 4*2 0*65 24 1'5 0*55 Mysol 4*0 0*70 2*4 1*5 0*60 "Theadult female from Duke-of-York Island has the breast bright sulphur-yellow, barely tinted with olive towards the front of the chest, aud the under tail-coverts slightly paler. The throat is ashy tinted white. The upper part of the head and back of the neck ash-grey, the back and the edges of the wing-feathers olive-yellow, the black tail with the white tips to some of the outer feathers, are characters agreeing perfectly with the other females I have seen of this species. The paler and brighter underparts are apparently only due to the skin having been less exposed to the blackening influence of the London atmosphere. " The young male, or, perhaps, more properly the male in moult resembles the female, excepting that the sides of the throat and a few of the middle feathers are steel-blue, and on the front of the chest there are a few black feathers, the first signs of the coming adult plumage. "In Mr. Godman's collection there are two specimens of this bird, said to have been obtained at Cape York, Australia. This extension of the range so far south as Australia appeared somewhat improbable for a member of the ' Hermotimia' group, considering how extremely limited is the range of all the other species of this group. " This species, however, was known to be the most widely spread of the ' Hermotimia' group and now that we find that it extends so far eastward as Duke-of-York Island, we have little reason to doubt its extending also southward to Cape York; and on examination of the two specimens in Mr. Godman's cabinet, it will be seen that the Cape-York specimens have the violet shade on the throat, indicative of the western form of this species as found at Popo and Mysol, but agree in the colouring of the crown with the true C. aspasia from Dorey, and not with the type specimen of Hermotimia chlorocephala, Salvadori, from the Aru Islands." 16. NECTARINIA FRENATA. Nectarinia frenata, Miill. Verh. Zool. p. 61, pl. 8. fig. 1. |