188 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



34. Ptilopus porphyraceus (Temminck). 



Columha porphyracea Temminck, Trans. Linn, soc, London, 1821, 13, p. 130. 

 (Tongatabu and Ulieta). 



Eleven specimens were collected at the following localities : — Nine, 

 25 November; Eua, 28 November; Tongatabu, 30 November; 

 Nomuka, 2 December; and Vavau, 4 December, all in the Tonga 

 Islands; and Kambara, 7 December in the Fiji Islands. The species 

 does not seem to have been recorded from Kambara and Nomuka 

 before. The bird from the Fijis has been called Ptilopus porphyraceus 

 devientinae (Jacquinot and Pucheran) (Wiglesworth, Aves Polynesiae, 

 1891, p. 50). It is slightly paler on the breast and throat than the 

 average in the series but in this respect is equalled by one bird from 

 Eua. The under tail coverts are yellower also but other specimens 

 from the Tonga Islands resemble it closely. A bird in immature 

 plumage from Eua has the under tail coverts entirely yellow with no 

 orange at all, so that the depth and extent of the orange color in these 

 feathers seems to be dependent upon age. No females are represented 

 in the collection so that no comparison is possible between the two 

 sexes in regard to this character. It is worthy of note that two males, 

 apparently adult, from Nine have the under tail coverts entirely deep 

 yellow. 



In an immature bird from Eua the aster-purple crown of the adult is 

 indicated on the forehead by a few new feathers at the .base of the cere. 

 Elsewhere the crown is green (between light hellebore and light elm- 

 green) like the back. All of the wing coverts, tertials, and scapulars 

 are tipped with yellow. The primaries are tipped with white, the 

 secondaries with white and margined with yellowish, and there are 

 obscure yellow tips on the feathers of the back forming slender cross- 

 bars. The terminal tail band is obsolete on the median pair of rec- 

 trices. The under tail coverts, abdomen, and a patch either side of 

 the rump are yellow, there is an obscure yellowish patch on the middle 

 of the abdomen and the feathers of the lower throat and breast are 

 tipped with yellow. There is no trace of a dark band on the lower 

 breast, and the concealed blue spots found in the adult near the tips 

 of tertials and scapulars are faintly indicated on some feathers in these 

 areas by obscure spots of slightly brighter green. 



