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Show 34 MR. P. L. SCLATER ON TRAGELAPHUS GRATUS. [Feb. 6, island. The absence of any spot on the nape, the pure cinnamon the back and wings, and the different colour of the lower back and rump render it at once distinguishable from either of its congeners. W e propose to describe it as follows:- OTIDIPHAPS INSULARIS, sp. nov. Capite toto, cervice et corpore subtus nigris purpurascente tinctis; interscapulio, secundariis et tectricibus alarum omnibus pure cinnamomeis; remigibus fuscis ; cauda nigra; dorso postico viridescenti-nigro, dorso imo et uropygio pupurascente tinctis ; rostro corallino-rubro; pedibus vinaceo-rubris, fiavo squamulatis. Long, tota 15*0, alee 7*4, cauda rectr. mediis 6*6, rectr. lat. 3*3, rostri a rictu 1*15, tarsi 2*6 poll. Angl. Hab. Insula Fergusson dicta, ad oras Novae Guineae orientalis ( Goldie). Obs. Ab O. nobili crista occipitaii et macula nuchali absentibus, colore dorsi purius cinnamomeo nee purpureo tincto, colore dorsi postici viridescente nee omnino purpureo, et cauda breviore diversus. Ab O. cervicali macula nuchali absente, colore dorsi purius cinnamomeo nee purpureo tincto et colore dorsi imi et uropygii purpureo distinguendus. Mr. Goldie writes that he obtained tbe two specimens of this Pigeon on an exceedingly rough range of mountains at an altitude of over 2000 feet on Fergusson Island, one of the Dentrecasteaux group. The call, he says, is a sort of ke-o, the " o" being prolonged. One bird was shot on a low limb of a large tree. He adds that the iris is red, and the legs claret-colour with the scales of light greenish yellow. The two previously known other species of Otidiphaps have recently been described, and a full account given of them, by Count Salvadori in the third part of his ' Ornitologia della Papuasia e delle Molucche,' pp. 188-191. The discovery of a third species of this remarkable genus is of great interest, and does credit to Mr. Goldie's industry. It was on the same island that the Bird of Paradise which we have recently described (Ibis 1883, p. 131) as Paradisea decora was obtained. 2. Further Notes on Tragelaphus gratus. By P. L. SCLATER, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Society. [Received February 1, 1883.] (Plate VIII.) At the meeting of this Society held on the 15th of June 1880, I exhibited a skin of an Antelope from the Gaboon, which I referred to an undescribed species of Tragelaphus allied to Tr. spekii, and proposed to call Tragelaphus gratus1. I have now the pleasure of being able to give some further information respecting this interesting animal. See P. Z. S. 1880, p. 452, pi. xliv. |