| OCR Text |
Show 4 MESSRS. HARTLAUB AND FINSCH ON [Jan. 9, mens which I have had before me only four nipples could be traced, and in one of these, in the Australian Museum Collection (in spirits), all four nipples are drawn, showing that four is probably the greatest number of young produced. I have examined the region of the pouch, which is represented by a skin-fold, with a powerful glass, but not a vestige of the remaining nipples could I discover. My specimen is full-grown ; and if the other nipples were present, traces should be found of them, though ever so small. In young females of Phascogale penicillata the nipples are scarcely discernible to the naked eye, but are clearly shown as soon as a good lens is used. 2. O n a Collection of Birds from the Pelew Islands. By Dr. G. H A R T L A U B , F.M.Z.S., and O. FINSCH. (Plates II. & III.) The Polynesian collectors of M. Johann Caesar Godeffroy of Hamburg, to whose zealous efforts we owe already so many valuable materials and so much useful information concerning the zoology of the Pacific Islands, have of late sent a second collection from the Pelew group, an almost unknown locality, of which the geographical position between Mindanao aud the Western Carolines is certainly a most interesting one. This second collection contains thirty-five species, but amongst them are neither rapacious birds nor parrots ! Besides a number of widely distributed Indo- and Polynesian species, as Carpophaga pacifica, Rallus pectoralis, Ortygometra quadristrigata, Tringa acuminata, Charadrius fulvus, Ardea sacra, Anas superciliosa, Sterna lunata, Gygis alba, Carbo melanoleucus, &c, there are three well-known members of the avifauna of the Caroline and Marianne Islands,-Halcyon albicilla, Myzomela rubratra, and Calornis kittlitzii. For Rallina fasciata and Nycticorax goisagi the Philippines are the transitional station. For Porphyrio melanotus, a very common Australian and New-Zealand species, the Pelew Islands are a new habitat. As a very curious fact we must consider the occurrence of Fuligula cristata, a Duck widely distributed over the continents of Europe and Asia, but as yet not known from any of the Indian or Polynesian Islands. 1. COLLOCALIA VANICORENSIS, Quoy. 2. H A L C Y O N ALBICILLA, Less. Three specimens, not quite adult, all having the crown and mantle with a greenish gloss. c nSfSZ?? REICHENBACHII> Harfl, (H. cinnamomina, Reich. I. 64y0, o4yi). One specimen, somewhat smaller than those figured by Reichen bach ; the colour is quite the same. There remains a good deal of |
