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Show 274 MR. W. A. FORBES ON THE GENUS MYZOMELA. [Mar. 4, island of Rotumah, north of the Fijis. Fortunately Gray's type is still in existence in the gallery of the British Museum ; and on comparing the birds from Rotumah with it, it was at once evident that they were of the same species, though Gray's figure represents a bird with a uniformly scarlet underside. About the same time Mr. Sharpe got a specimen (from which the figure is taken) of the same bird, apparently identical in every respect, from the island of Mallikollo (in m y paper, 1. c., by a mistake I wrote Erromango) in the New Hebrides, where it was obtained by Mr. Wykeham Perry, H.M.S. ' Pearl.' The species thus has a wide range, though I believe the above-mentioned four specimens (which are all nearly or quite adult) are as yet the only ones of this bird ever brought to Europe. The female is similar to the male in colour, but a little duller (confl I. c. p. 353). 24. MYZOMELA ROSENBERGI. Myzomela rosenbergi, Schleg. Ned. Tijd. Dierk. iv. p. 38 (1871) ; Rosenberg, Reist. Geelv. Baai, p. 138, t. xvi. fig. 2 (1875) ; Meyer, Sitzungs-ber. Wien. Akad. lxix. i. pp. 211, 212 (1874). cf ad. niger nitore nonnullo metallico; collo, dorso, uropygioque, cum pectore splendide coccineis; rostro nigro, pedibus cornels. Long. al. 2*5, caud. 1*7, rostr. a culm. *65, tars. *55 (poll. Angl.). 2 rufescenti-brunnea, plumis ad basin nigris, ad rhachin pallidioribus ; fronte, pectore uropygioque coccineis, mento gulaque nigricantibus; alis caudaque fuscis, remigibus externe olivaceo-limbatis, tectricum alarum apicibus brunneis; pogoniis internis remigum albis. cf jr. femince similis, sed fronte, pectore, uropygio, mento gulaque corpore concoloribus. Hab. in Nova Guinea. This beautiful and very distinct Myzomela was first described by Prof. Schlegel from two specimens, both males, collected by Von Rosenberg in the north-western peninsula of New Guinea. Dr. A. B. Meyer obtained five specimens from the Arfak Mountains near Hattam, at an elevation of about 3500 feet above the sea, during his expedition to New Guinea in 1873. Since then numerous specimens have been obtained by various travellers in the same district. That the species is not confined, however, to the Arfak Mountains is shown by the fact ' that Signor D'Albertis obtained two skins of this same bird, identical with Arfak specimens, from the natives of the neighbourhood of Epa, near Hall Bay, S.E. New Guinea. According to Dr. Meyer the adults of both sexes are similar, and the bird above described as the female (from two nearly identical specimens so sexed by Beccari) is really the young assuming adult plumage. Count Salvadori, however, writes m e that he has about 40 specimens of this species, and maintains the view he has already expressed (Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. vii. p. 947, 1S75), that Meyer's " young" are in reality females. A very young bird ( cf ) in the 1 Cf. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, vii. p. 799 (1875). |