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Show 1875.] MR. E. L. LAYARD ON THE BIRDS OF FIJI. 29 identify it with B. nebulosa, described by Finsch and Hartlaub, and they do not give a Bhipidura as an inhabitant of this group) I take to be new, and therefore provisionally describe under the name RHIPIDURA ALBOGULARIS, sp. nov. Female. Upper parts above very dark black-brown, tinged with a warm reddish brown on the rump and back ; eyebrow, chin, and throat white ; underparts greyish, more or less longitudinally striped with black and white, and tinged on the belly and vent with isabella yellow. Primaries dark brown ; secondaries faintly edged with reddish brown ; tertiaries and coverts edged and tipped with the same. Tail-feathers dark brown, all but the four central broadly tipped with white. Bill black ; base of lower mandible orange ; bristles of bill black, and exceeding it in length. Legs blackish ; iris brown. Length 6" ; wing 3" ; tail 3" 6'" ; tarsus 10'" ; bill 6'". The specimen described was shot by m y butler on the 11th of August of this year, very high up in the mountains; its stomach contained minute insects; another was seen but not secured, probably the male. It was very restless and continually spreading its tail, jerking it over its back. September 11th.-Another just shot up the mountain. I may as well here indicate the existence of a new Zosterops in Kandavu. I saw several specimens in the ' Challenger' collection, but failed to find it myself in m y visit there, though I obtained the common Z. flaviceps, from which it was distinguished by being yellow from the chin to the abdomen, and without the ash-colour collar. Unfortunately, when Professor Wyville Thomson suggested that I should describe the new species, the specimens had been packed away ; a more detailed description must therefore await the advent in England of the 'Challenger's' treasures; meanwhile I suggest the specific name of Z. explorator, as indicating the 'Expedition,' and well illustrating the inquisitive poking-into-everything character of the birds of this genus. Drs. Finsch and Hartlaub do not include Tachypetes aquila in their inhabitants of these islands; but I found them very common here during the hurricane-months (January to the end of March); during the gales they came to land, and m y son shot one from the consulate door. I also saw them while cruising about among the islands. This (September) seems about the middle of the breeding-season, though some species breed earlier, e. g. Astur cruentus, young of which I received with the down on them in May. I have eggs brought to me oi Ptilotis procerior (hard-set), Artamus mentalis (also young birds able to fly), Astur cruentus (probably a second laying), Zosterops flaviceps, and Ardea javanica. The last-named eggs were obtained by Mr. A. Boyd, one of m y kind helpers in m y collecting, who also informed me that he knew of Terns and Plovers breeding in some isolated rocks ; but on going for their eggs, he found they had been harried by the natives, two days previously, for a Sunday feast; the old birds were still frequenting the place, uttering doleful cries. |