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Show 1876.] OF THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS. 4y9 52. TACHYPETES AQUILUS, L. Common in stormy weather. Though the number of species is smaller in the Navigators' Islands than in Fiji, being 52 as compared with 98, the number of individuals is apparently far greater. I could any morning, within one mile of the town of Upolu, shoot twenty or thirty birds, of at least ten species, in the course of a couple of hours. Here in Fiji, in the best collecting-ground, we considered eighteen or twenty specimens a good day's work, from daylight till one or two o'clock ; and we might perhaps have six species, if we were lucky ! W e were in Samoa at the worst time of the ) ear, the rainy season : all the birds were moulting ; and the young of the last season had not assumed their full nuptial dress. Mr. Krause assured me I could have obtained double or treble the number in the fine season, especially when the Erythrina blossomed. Its flowers are a great attraction to insects, and consequently to most of the birds. I fancy that there are still other species to be discovered in the group. Dr. Graffe does not seem to have been an assiduous collector, or he could not have missed so many novelties in Fiji. Perhaps Mr. Kleinsmith, the present collector for Messrs. Godeffroy, may prove more industrious ; he has already done good service by discovering the curious little Lamprolia minor, and procuring additional examples of m y new species. On the 12th of February I found myself in Tonga-Tabu ; and as soon as I could spare time from m y official work (the object of my visit) I took a stroll in the country to inspect the birds of that part of m y consulate. Few and far between were they. The little Collocalia, as usual, thrust himself first into notice ; and I eagerly scanned them as they glided by to detect C. vanicorensis, but in vain. Then the " Wattle-birds " (Ptilotis) claimed my attention; and I fear I shot more than I could skin, to look for one with a white eye ; none showed that peculiarity. Then Lalage terat appeared on the scene in considerable numbers. I was surprised at this, as it is not included in Drs. Finsch and Hartlaub's list. The last bird I shot was Aplonis tabuensis ; and the instant I picked it up I saw that our Fiji bird differed from it, and had been wrongly associated with it. If, then, none of ihe synonyms given to A. tabuensis can be traced to a Fijian-killed bird, I propose for our species the name of A. vitiensis; and the bird I have described from the island of Futuna being identical with the Tongan species, the name given to it by me must sink into another synonym of that already overburdened species. To proceed symmetrically, however, I commence with 1. HALIAETUS LEUCOGASTER, Gm. (?) A solitary specimen of this bird may have reached Tonga; but all my inquiries respecting Raptorial birds only elicited the fact that our two Fijian hawks occasionally visit the group, and are recognized as stragglers by the Tongans, who of course, knowiug them well, call them " Fiji Hawks." Some of the white residents were also |