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Show 28 MR. E. L. L A Y A R D O N T H E BIRDS O F FIJI. [Jan. 5, which, at the suggestion of Professor Wyville Thomson, I now proceed to describe as PTILOTIS PROVOCATOR, sp. nov. Male. Above greyish brown, tinged with green, especially on the rump ; back, between the shoulders (interscapulium) marked with narrow, white, indistinct pencillings, caused by the shafts of the feathers being whitish, showing plainer in some specimens than in others ; back of the head (sinciput) indistinctly mottled with white ; forehead (frons) blackish, the colour extending and darkening in front of the eye and under it backwards to the ear, where it bifurcates ; eye surrounded by a patch of bright yellow, broken immediately below the eye by a white spot, and changing into brownish yellow above the eye; eyelid yellow; chin grey ; feathers of the neck (jugulum) lanceolate, grey, tinged with yellowish green ; breast (pectus) the same ; underparts generally pale grey, more or less mottled; vent nearly immaculate; wing and tail-feathers brown; primaries faintly edged with grey; secondaries deeply edged with yellowish green ; tertiaries and coverts edged and tipped with pale greenish grey, the tips forming two bars; flexure of wing on the inside yellow-brown. Bill black ; legs verditer ; iris brown. Length 7" 3'" ; wing 4" ; tail 3" 7'"; tarsus 1" 2'" ; bill 1" 1'". Female. Less brightly coloured than the male, especially about the eye ; but above all she differs remarkably in size, being, length 6" 3'", wing 3" 6'", tail 2" 11'", tarsus 11'", bill 11"'. The want of bare spaces about the eye and the lanceolate shape of the feathers at once distinguish this species from P. procerior; but in habits and call-note they are similar. Seven specimens, two of which were females, were obtained at Kandavu. They frequented, in considerable numbers, the Erythrina trees that happened to be in flower; the males preponderated over the females, it being, I fancy, from the sexual development, the breeding-season. I find also that P. procerior is breeding here in Ovalau, together with many other species. They clung head downwards to the bunches of the gorgeous flowers, extracting the juices and the minute insects which came there for the same purpose, and with which their stomachs were crammed. While thus employed they were silent, but when among the cocoanut-groves or the leafy forest they were very noisy. My impression is, that several new forms of this genus will be found in these islands. This one seems to be confined to Kandavu ; but as I have met with the genus wherever I have been (I have not had time to shoot specimens), I fancy we shall find more than the two known species among the 200 and odd islands of the Fiji group. In looking over Finsch and Hartlaub's table showing the geographical distribution of species (I regret to say the German text is a sealed book to me), I see he gives the Fiji group as a habitat of P. carunculata without designating the locality. A little Bhipidura has turned up here in Ovalau, which (as I cannot |