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Show 698 DR. W. BLASIUS ON BIRDS FROM CERAM. [Nov. 28, The determination and the scientific analysis of the birds which we receive from the Moluccas is greatly facilitated for us by the excellent and very comprehensive work of Tommaso Salvadori, "Ornitologia della Papuasia e delle Molucche," Parte I. Accipitres, Psittaci, Picarise (in the ' Memorie della Reale Accademia delle Scienze di Torino,' serie ii. tomo xxxiii. : Torino, Ermanno Loescher, 1881, 4to), and Parte II. Passeres (Torino, Stamperia Reale: G. B. Paravia e Co., 1881, 4to). This work, as well as the numerous publications of the same author in the ' Annali del Museo Civico di Genova,' and especially also the ' Prodromus Ornithologise Papuasise et Moluccarum,' published in the different series of those Annals, have been of the utmost use to m e in the present treatise. The collection of Dr. Platen is not very large ; but among the forty-nine birds, which comprise twenty-one different species, we find nevertheless one species which is absolutely new to the fauna of Ceram, and several others which give occasion for further observations and the discussion of other systematic questions. The remarks of the collector (given with inverted commas) on the colour of the iris and the naked parts of the skins, the total length in fresh condition (L.), and the distance between the ends of the wings and tail (D.), &c, as well as the precise information as to the locality and the time of collecting, will be found most valuable, as they have likewise been of great advantage to m y former notes on Dr. Platen's collections from Borneo and other localities. I shall now give the list of the birds which Dr. Platen has lately sent; and (with the exception of the four last species, which have not yet been treated by Salvadori) I shall follow the order of the above-named work of Salvadori, adding the number of the page for each separate species. 1. CUNCUMA LEUCOGASTER (Gm.), Salvad. i. p. 7. "Male. Iris grey-brown. L. 72 cm., D. 3*5 cm. Bill horny grey-blue ; cere and feet light grey-blue. Lokki, Ceram, 28 November 1881." The specimen is young, and has nearly the coloration of the feathers which Salvadori describes as belonging to the young bird ; only the tips of the brown feathers of the head, neck, and back are in part of a clear white; the larger upper tail-coverts are whitish near the base, and near the tip light brown-mottled ; the smaller upper tail-coverts are brown, tipped with whitish spots; the light tips of the feathers of the underparts, which are generally of a uniform brown, are not pure white, but light ferruginous. The primaries are at the ends nearly black for about two thirds of the length, at least dark brown without any trace of grey. Salvadori has mentioned a similarly different coloration in describing some young specimens from Halmahera. It is particularly striking that the tail of our individual is considerably longer than the measure given by Salvadori, as also than those of two old birds of the Brunswick Museum, one of which we have received with the general indication ' Moluccas ' from Mr. G. A. Frank, in Amsterdam, while we owe the |