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Show 700 DR. W. BLASIUS ON BIRDS FROM CERAM. [NOV. 28, 2. TINNUNCULUS MOLUCCENSIS, Schleg., Salvad. i. p. 37. "Female. Iris brown. L. 38 cm., D. 3 cm. Bill bluish, tip black ; feet, cere, and skin round eyes light yellow. Lokki, Ceram 26 November 1881." A transition stage. The primaries are nearly all of a strong reddish to light brown colouring, which Salvadori gives as proof of youth; while the older specimens before m e of the Brunswick Museum, from Celebes and Halmahera, possess quills of a darker brown or black-brown. The tail-feathers also, with the exception of the already changed middle pair, have a reddish-grey colouring, instead of the later shade of ashy grey. The specimen is in the Brunswick Museum. 3. NINOX SQUAMIPILA (Bp.), Salvad. i. p. 89. Two specimens (male and female). For both, the label says :- " Iris dark brown; bill bluish, tip white ; feet and cere light yellow. Lokki, Ceram." 1. " 6 • L. 30 cm., D. 2 cm. 30 November 1881." 2. " $ . L. 27 cm., D. 2 cm. 26 November 1881." Both these specimens coincide almost exactly with the diagnosis given by Salvadori (I. c.) and by Sharpe in the Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. ii. p. 184, pl. xii. fig. 2. As in the descriptions of Sharpe and Salvadori there is no reference whatever to a difference of the sexes of this species, and as in the two Zoological Museums most important for this question, those of Leyden and London, both sexes are not represented together with any certainty (in the British Museum only one ad. stuffed without mention of sex and one male ad., and in the Leyden Museum, with the exception of one specimen of 'Athene hantu, Wallace,' from Buru, and of one specimen from Mysol, doubted by Salvadori, five specimens, among which two are without mention of sex and three females), I consider it interesting to point out a striking difference between the two specimens mentioned above, which is possibly sexual. The dark-brown cross bands on the white underside are much narrower in the female than in the male : those of the female are about 1 to 1*5 mm., those of male 2*5 m m . in width. Exactly the same appearance shows itself on the dark bands of the partially white upper wing-coverts (2 to 3 mm., 4 m m . ) and on the dark-brown bands of the under wing-coverts (1 to 2 mm., 3 to 3*5 m m . ) . Moreover the colouring of the back of the female is a little lighter red-brown than that of the male, and the light cross bands on the back of the female are more conspicuous than in the male. The claws, too, of the female are lighter than those of the male, and behind the nostrils the cere of the male has a much greater width than that of the female (10, 0*6 cm.). The difference of size is not inconsiderable. Long. tot. Al. Oaud. Rostr. Tars. cm. cm. cm. cm. cm. 6 .... 28 22*5 13*7 2*7 3*5 $ •• • 24 21-7 13*1 2*5 3*3 |