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Show 260 MR. W. A. FORBES ON THE GENUS MYZOMELA. [Mar. 4, River Districts, New S. Wales, the interior, Victoria, and S. Australia; so that it ranges over the greater part of Eastern Australia. Mr. Ramsay has given us a good account of the habits and nesting of this species near Sydney, where it is a summer visitor, arriving in October and November, in 'The Ibis' for 1865 (p. 304). 2. MYZOMELA CALEDONICA, n. sp. Myzomela sanyuinolenta (ex Nova Caledonia) auct. cS preecedenti simillima, sed tectricibus alarum marginibus carens. Hab. in Nova. Caledonia. Mus. H. B. Tristram. The Myzomela from New Caledonia, although no doubt very closely allied to the preceding Australian species, is, I think, fairly entitled to rank as a distinct species; and I have therefore separated it under the above name. M y attention was first directed to this form by a specimen kindly lent me by Canon Tristram, and shot by Mr. Layard near Noumea. This bird, a fully-plumaged male, differs from a considerable number of Australian specimens with which I have compared it, in the almost entire absence of the conspicuous greyish-white margins to the feathers of the wing-coverts, so that they are nearly entirely black, with only a trace of olive-colour at the margins. Besides this, the red colour of the body is hardly so bright, and extends a little further down on the abdomen, and the margins to the quills are more of an olive-yellow. The size is about the same (wing 2*25), Australian specimens varying a little in this respect. Canon Tristram writes me that he has six specimens of the New-Caledonian bird, and that the differences which I pointed out to him are constant in the series. Mr. Layard gives the following notes as to the soft parts on the label of his specimen : - " Beak black, legs brown-black, iris brown." Mr. Layard also met with a Myzomela, which he referred to M. sanguinolenta (Ibis, 1878, p. 280), in the New Hebrides, on the islands of Vate, Api, and Mallikollo, and remarks that a specimen procured is identical with the New-Caledonian bird ; so that it seems probable that M. caledonica may extend its range as far as these islands; but specimens to show this are as yet wanting. 3. MYZOMELA CHLOROPTERA. (Plate XXIV. fig. 1.) Myzomela chloroptera, Wald. Ann. N. H. 4th ser. ix. p. 399 (1872) ; Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. vii. p. 662 (1875). c$ ad. capite, dorso uropygioque, cum pectore, coccineis; corpore subtus griseoflcwido ; alis caudaque fuscis, remigibus et tectricibus alarum olivaceo limbatis, subalaribus et margine interna albis, aleeflexura flavo-albida; macula anteoculari nigra; rostro nigricante, pedibus obscure cornels. Long. al. 2*2, caud. 1*5, rostr. *55, tars. *50 (poll. Angl.). Hab. in insula Celebes. This Myzomela, the westernmost of the whole genus, was described by the late Lord Tweeddale from imperfect specimens collected by |