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Show 430 MR. H. O. FORBES ON BIRDS FROM [June 17, (the label bearing the name in his handwriting) as C. metallica, it remained unique. After comparison of this skin with Timor-Laut specimens, the two are unquestionably identical. C. circumscripta^ (Meyer) must, therefore, be considered henceforth a synonym of C. gularis, G. R. Gr., which must now be removed from being a synonym of C. metallica to specific rank, confirming the opinion expressed in 1876 (' Ibis,' p. 46) by Mr. Bowdler Sharpe, who says : - " I must pronounce this, contrary to Lord Walden's opinion, a very good species, distinguished by its purple throat and small bill, the culmen only measuring '65 inch, as against *85 in C. viridescens." This measurement is not the only one by which the species can be distinguished, for the plumage in every specimen is so constant that the skins cannot easily be confounded with any other. C. gularis is slightly less, and more brightly metallic-a more beautiful bird, in my opinion, even than the true G. metallica ; the purple of the throat, which is more chastely and delicately feathered than in G. metallica, is separated from the purple of the back and upper breast by a narrow and very bright green band. The total length of the bird in 14 specimens ranged from 210-250 millim. Count Salvadori (P. Z. S. 1878, p. 89) remarks : - " Some specimens (of C. metallica) have the throat more purplish than others, one from Mysol (G. gularis, Gray) cannot be separated from others from Halmaheira and Cape York." I have not seen any Halmaheira specimens ; but the Cape-York bird undoubtedly differs by the purple on the breast, which is green in C. gularis; the green neck-band is much broader, and the throat is more markedly green and without purple. It has, I believe, been separated as C. purpurascens, Salv. The Admiralty-Island Calornis is somewhat similar to C. gularis, but is at once distinguishable by the absence of purple on the back ; the head is purple ; and it is known as C. purpureiceps. The designation Ptilopus flavovirescens has been proposed by Dr. Meyer for the Timor-Laut Pigeon determined by Dr. Sclater as P. xanthogaster (Wagl.). The difference lies, he notes, in the " Gelbgriinlichgraue " of the head and neck. From a careful comparison of my own skins with those in the British Museum, I feel confident that the differences observed by Dr. Meyer will be found to be those due to age only. Very young birds have a grey band over the forehead, and the rest of the head with the neck and back nearly of the same shade of green ; with advancing age we find every shade of green and yellowish-green to Dr. Meyer's " Gelbgriinlichgraue." The head of the fully adult bird is purplish grey, each feather having a pale yellow submarginal crescent across it. Some of the skins obtained by me differ as to head and neck in no respect from specimens brought by Mr. Wallace from Banda; others have the head and neck of a grey colour tinctured with every shade through green-blue to yellow, differing according to the age of the birds. I cannot detect in the specimens I have any difference in breadth of the " Gelb der Kehle " as compared with Mr. Wallace's specimens ; nor is the breast shield constantly of one shade in all the specimens I have examined. In the Banda example (of Wallace) it |