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Show 1877.J THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 409 variety of his Alcedo collaris, from the Island of St. Christina. This island is the "Tahuata" of the new maps, a small island separated by the Bordelaise Straits from Hiwaoa, the chief eastern island of the Marquesas group. As this supposed variety of Forster's has remained unnamed since his time, I take a pleasure in bestowing on it the name of Mr. Johann Cesar Godeffroy, who has contributed through his travels so much to a better knowledge of the Polynesian Islands. H. godeffroyi is a true miniature of H albicilla, Less., from New Guinea and the Eastern Moluccas, but may be distinguished, besides its inferior size, by the white of the hind neck running down to the middle part of the mantle. In this respect it differs also, even in its young state, from H. tuta, the occurrence of which on the Marquesas rests merely on the labels of the Leiden and Dresden Museums, and has not been verified by any traveller. 3. TATARE LONGIROSTRIS (Gm.) ; Finsch & Hartl. Ornith. Central-Polyn. p. 66. Three specimens, agreeing perfectly with examples from the Society Islands (Eimeo and Huahine). 4. MONARCHA NIORA (Sparrm.); Finsch & Hartl.Ornith. Central- Polyn. p. 90. An extensive series of 12 specimens, representing all the stages of plumage which were formerly considered to belong to different species. Four specimens in a uniform black dress are, no doubt, in full plumage. Four specimens are in the rusty plumage (Muscicapa lutea, Gm.), and are apparently young birds:- Upper parts dark rusty brown, quills and tail darker; the remiges margined externally rusty ; lores, sides of head and neck, and the whole under surface light rufous, paling to rufous white on the middle of breast and vent; anal region nearly white. Bill yellowish, the culmen greyish. The protracted yellow angle of the mouth gives these birds the appearance of young ones. Five specimens show transitions in plumage from white to black, and from rusty to black ; all these birds are moulting:- Head, chin, throat and quills black, the remaining parts white, but varied with black feathers on the shoulders and mantle ; tail in one nearly uniform white, in others irregularly tipped with black, in One the outmost feather rusty; primaries margined externally more or less with white, in one specimen with rusty. Specimens changing from rusty to black:- Black ; wing-coverts margined with rusty, as are also some of the primaries; shoulders dark rusty-brown, like the tail; two middle tail-feathers black ; lower breast and abdomen pale rufous, flanks dark rufous ; under tail-coverts black. In another specimen, agreeing otherwise with the foregoing, the under tail-coverts are dark rusty, and the black of the head is mixed with dark brown feathers. |