OCR Text |
Show 1878.] MR. D. G. ELLIOT ON THE GENUS PTILOPUS. 533 Immature. Front tinged with rose-colour; loral space and a line over the anterior half of the eye light yellow. Head, neck, cheeks, back, and breast green, the feathers of the latter tipped with light yellow. Throat yellowish white. Abdomen and under tail-coverts light yellow; the lilac-red spot absent. Rest of plumage as in the adult. Specimens described are those figured by Bonaparte, Iconogr. Pig. pl. 21. 11. PTILOPUS EWINGII. Columba purpurata, Temm. Pig. et Gall. torn. i. p. 280 (1813); Less. Traite Ornith. (1831), p. 472 (nee auct.). Columba purpurata, Desmar. Diet. Sc. Nat. vol. xl. (1826) p. 339 ; Knip & Prev. Pig. vol. i. pl. 34 (nee auct.). Le Kurukuru, Less. Compl. Buff. Ois. torn. iii. p. 32 (1837). Ptilinopus purpuratus, Selby, Nat. Libr. vol. v. pt. 3, p. 103 (1835) (not from Otaheite); Swains. Class. Birds, vol. ii. p. 347 (nee auct.). Ptilinopus ewingii, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1842, p. 19 ; id. B. Austr. vol. v. pl. 56. Ptilonopus purpuratus, Gray, List B. Brit. Mus. (1844) p. 2, Gallinee. Ptilonopus ewingii, Gray, List B. Brit. Mus. (1844) p. 2, (1856) p. 3. sp. 2; id. Gen. B. vol. ii. (1844) p. 466; Reich. Tauben, p. 94, pl. 235. figs. 1307-8. Kurukuru roseicapillus, Des Murs & Prev. (nee Less.), Voy. Venus, Ois. p. 262 (1855), partim. Ptilinopus flavicollis, Gray, List B. Brit. Mus. (1856) p. 3. sp. 3. Ptilonopus fiavipectus, Reich. Tauben, p. 94, pl. 235. fig. 1305 (ex pl. 35, Knip, Pig.), ex Timor. Ptilonopus flavicollis, Reich. Taub. p. 95 ; Gray, List B. Brit. Mus. (1856) p. 3. sp. 3; Wall. Ibis, 1865, p. 380. Ptilopus flavicollis, Bon. Consp. Gen. Av. vol. ii. p. 20. sp. 4 ; id. Compt. Rend. (1855) torn. xl. p. 216. sp. 40; id. Iconog. Pig. (1857) pl. 25. Ptilopus ewingii, Bon. Consp. Av. vol. ii. p. 20 (1857) ; id. Iconog. Pig. (1857) ,pl. 24. fig. 1 ; Schleg. Mus. Pays-B. 1873, p. 5. Ptilinopus flavicollis, Finsch & Hartl. Faun. Centralpolyn. (1867) p. 125. Hab. Coburg peninsula, northern coast of Australia (Gould); Timor, Flores (Semmehnk). The representation of this species given by Madame Knip on plate 34 of her work is so badly executed that it is impossible to recoguize what is intended ; for it certainly resembles no species that was ever seen. Therefore Bonaparte was perfectly justified in giving another figure in his Iconogr. Pig. pl. 25, from which a very good idea of this species is obtained. It is very safe to say that, unless the originals of some of Madame Knip's plates had been preserved in the Paris Museum to show what the species really were, they would always have remained a stumbling-block to ornitho- |