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Show 118 MR. P. L. SCLATER ON BIRDS [Feb. 1 1, The following papers were read :- 1. On a Collection of Birds from the Solomon Islands. By P. L. S C L A T E R , M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Society. (Plates IX. & X.) Our Corresponding Member Mr. Gerard Krefft, the active Curator and Secretary of the Australian Museum, has most kindly presented to me a collection of birds in spirits, made by the captain of the (former) yacht ' Chance,' owned by Mr. J. A. Buttray of Bristol, during a voyage to the Solomon Islands*. The collection contains thirty specimens, belonging to twenty-one species, many of them of great interest. But before speaking of them I will say a few words upon what has hitherto been recorded concerning the ornithology of this group of islands. Our present authorities upon this subject are few in number, namely:- (1) The "Zoologie" of the voyage of the French ships 'L'Astrolabe' and 'La Zele'e,' under the command of Dumont-d'Urville, in 1837-1840, commonly known as the 'Voyage au Pole Sud.' The "Atlas" to this voyage contains figures of ten species of birds from the Solomon Islands, concerning which some further details are given in the letterpress of the same work, subsequently written by Dr. Pucheran and published in 1853. These ten species, which are all described as new to science, are:- Pachycephala orioloides Lamprotorn is fu Ivipenn is Dicceum ceneum Myzomela lafargei Lorius cardinalis ... Pionus heteroclitus Cacatua ducorpsii ... (2) Mr. Gould's Zool. vol. iii. Atlas. ... p. 50, ... p. 57, ... p. 81, p. 97, ... p. 98, ... p. 99, ...p. 103, p. 103, p. 105, p. 109, pl. 3. fig. 1. pl. 5. fig. 3. pl. 14. fig. 2. pl. 22. fig. 4. pl. 22. fig. 5. pl. 22. fig. 6. pl. 24^'s. fig. pl. 25 bis. fig. pl. 25 bis. fig. pl. 26. fig. 1. 2. L 2. ex ins. S. George. S. George. Isabel. S. George. S. George and Isabel. notices of new birds collected during the voyage of the 'Rattlesnake' (P. Z. S. 1856, p. 136 et seqq.). The species here described from the Solomons are :- 1. Centropus milo, from Guadalcanar. 2. Turaccena crassirostris, from Guadalcanar. 3. Lorius chlorocercus, from San Cristoval. 4. lotreron eugeniee, from "the Solomons." * The name of these islands is variously spelt "Salomon" and "Solomon" Islands. But we learn from Hakluyt (iii. p. 802) that the discoverer (Mendana) " named them the Isles of Salomon to the end that the Spaniards, supposing them to be those isles from whence Solomon fetched gold to adorn the Temple, might be the more desirous to go and inhabit the same." It would appear, therefore, to be better to call them in English " Solomon " Islands, according to the ordinary English orthography of Solomon's name. |
