OCR Text |
Show 668 ON THE FIJIAN SPECIES OF THE GENUS MERULA. [Dec. 2, to be regretted that so absolutely appropriate a name as Merula vitiensis cannot be applied to the Viti-Levu species, but as it has been previously applied to the Vanua-Levu species it cannot be used for any other. The differences between the two species have been already pointed out. There is less difference between the sexes in the Viti-Levu Ouzel than there is in the Vanua-Levu species ; but in the male the tail is longer than it is in the female (3'1 inches instead of 2'8 inches), the chestnut on the breast and flanks is paler and duller in the female than in the male; tbe colour of the upper tail-coverts and tail of the male is darker and more rufous (less olive) than in the female; and the grey on the upper breast is more sharply divided from the chestnut of the lower breast in the male than it is in the female. MERULA TE.MPESTI. Turdus tempesti, Layard, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876, p. 420. The Taviuni Ouzel was1 discovered by Mr. Tempest on the island of Taviuni, and the type is in the Layard Collection. It is most nearly allied to Merula poliocephala from Norfolk Island (more than a thousand miles from Taviuni), so nearly indeed that it requires a very accurate knowledge of the species to discriminate between them. So far as is known, Merula tempesti always has uniform dark brown or black under tail-coverts, but this seems also to be the case with adult males and very old females of its Norfolk- Island ally. In both species males have the grey of the throat and upper breast sharply divided from the black of the lower breast and belly, whilst in the females the two colours gradually blend into each other. In both sexes the Taviuni species has a much darker head than the same sex of its Norfolk-Island ally. The crown of Merula tempesti male, and that of Merula poliocephala female, may be described as greyish brown, several shades darker and browner than the brownish grey of Merula poliocephala male; whilst the crown of Merula tempesti female is brownish black, almost as dark as the back. MERULA RUFICEPS. Merula ruficeps, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales, p. 43 (read 29th November, 1875). Merula bicolor, Layard, Ibis, 1876, p. 153. The Kandavu Ouzel was discovered on the island of Kandavu by Mr. Pearce, who seems to have sent skins to Mr. Ramsay and to Mr. Layard, so that the species was almost simultaneously described bv each of these ornithologists. It is a very handsome species, and appears to be nearest allied to Merula pritzbueri from the Loyalty Islands and the N e w Hebrides and more distantly to Merula tempesti from Taviuni. It differs from these two species in having the entire head and neck of a rich (almost orange) buff. |