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Show 1882.] DR. W. BLASIUS ON BIRDS FROM CERAM. 705 men^ant a prendre la teinte d'un bleu-vert du ventre." Salvadori, on the contrary, describes mistakenly :- 1. Mas. " Gutture albo ; gastraeo* reliquo pallide cseruleo ( 2 ?)•" 2. Fam. " Mari simillima, sed subtus alba, abdomine imo tantum ceeruleo ( 8 ?)." 3. Mas. jun. " Foeminse similis, sed colore albo pectoris partim caeruleo tincto ( 2 jun. ?)." I am of opinion that, judging from the seven males and two females of Dr. Platen's, the description of Salvadori for No. I would be that of a female, for 2 that of a male, and for 3 that of a young female as Schlegel describes it. The three males from Ceram have the underparts in the rather larger front half white, and in the rather smaller hind part blue ; in the middle line the blue colour of the belly has with the addition of the blue under tail-coverts a length of about 5*5 to 6*5 cm., while in the two females from Amboina before me the blue of the underparts, which extends up to the breast, has a length of 8 to 8*5 cm. Dr. Platen's remarks about the sex, which are evidently correct, are so much the more valuable, as many specimens in different museums seem to be kept under a wrong statement of sex, like the two specimens in the Museum of Lubeck mentioned by Dr. Lenz (Caban. J. f. Orn. 1877, p. 368), which are also, as I believe, wrongly labelled, as the just-named author communicates to me. No. 2 is in the collection of Mr. Nehrkorn. 12. SAUROPATIS CHLORIS (Bodd.), Salvad. i. p. 470. Two specimens-1." J . Dec. 4, 1881;" 2." 2 • Nov. 21, 1881." For both, the labels say : - " Iris brown. L. 24 cm., D. 4*5 cm. Bill black ; reddish-white spot on the under mandible ; feet dark brown. Lokki, Ceram." Both are young specimens, with a brownish-yellow shade on the underparts and the band of the neck, and with light brownish colouring of the light spots of the lores and on the tips of the forehead- feathers, and numerous little dark borders on the breast-feathers. The brownish colour and the black bordering of the breast-feathers are more conspicuous in the female (No. 2) than in the male (No. 1); for which reason the first (whicb, on account of the dirty-green upper part, bears a great resemblance to Sauropatis sordida, Gould) should be regarded as the youngest of the two specimens, notwithstanding the greater length (about a few millimetres) of the wings and bill. The Brunswick Museum possesses three specimens from Celebes, on the two old birds of which the white appears clear, while the third resembles the young male from Ceram. The supposition of Dr. Lenz (Caban. J. f. O. 1877, p. 367) that S. sancta (Vig. & Horsf.) might only be the young bird of 5. chloris (Bodd.), will hardly be confirmed (cf. Blasius and Nehrkorn, torn. cit. p. 431, sp. 16). No. 2 is in the Brunswick Museum. . 47* |
