lO NOVITATKS ZOOLOGICAE XXI. 1914. 



LIST OF A SMALL COLLECTION OP BIRDS FROM THE 



AICORA RIVER. 



By THE Hon. WALTER ROTHSCHILD, F.R.S., Ph.D., and ERNST HARTERT, Ph.D. 



THE Aicora River is a small river iu N.E. British Papua, close to the German 

 bonudar}-. In 1906 Mr. Albert S. Meek took some of his men there and had 

 collections made for about six or seven weeks, from October to December. The 

 collection of birds made there is very small, bnt the locality is so interesting that 

 we thought it worth while to publish a list. Tlie majority are, of course, the same 

 forms as found in other parts of British New Gninea, but some of them are already 

 those found chiefly in Kaiser Wilhelmsland. The S.E. Papuan fauna generally 

 reaches up into German New Guinea, and only changes on or north of the Hnon 

 Gulf. While the Batchelor Mountains have still the southern ornis, that of the 

 Rawlinson Range is very diflerent, and contains many quite peculiar forms. 



1. Ptilinopus superbus (Temm.). S ; 1. xii. 1905 (No. 89). 



2. Ptilinopus pulchellus (Temm.). S ; 2.5. xi. 1905 (No. 74). 



3. Ptilinopus rivolii bellus Scl. ?; 3. xii. 1905 (No. 94). 



4. Lorius lory erythrothorax Salvad. S % ; 23. ix., 23. x. 1905 (Nos. 14, 55). 



5. Lorius kypoenochrous devittatus Hart. Sept.-Oct. 1905 (label lost). 



6. Trichoglossus kaematodus massena Bp. 2 ?; 18. ix., 26. xi. 1905 (Nos. 2, 

 76). — Besides these two birds, which agree well with specimens of massena from 

 the islands, we have received a S , shot on September 18, 1905 (No. 3, A. iS. Meek 

 (Joll.), which is larger and has rather wide bars on the chest, and agrees with our 

 intermedins from German New Guinea. The primaries are still in moult, but as 

 they are they measure 138 mm. 



Trich. haematoclus massena is a rare bird in S.E. Papua, and we have only 

 specimens from Nicnra, the Lower Mambare River, Kumnsi River, one from the 

 Aroa, and one from "Oriori" in the Osven .Stanley Mountains. 



In the Snow Mountains we find already Triclwylossas kuematodus cyano- 

 yrammus auct. 



7. Charmosynopsis pulcliella (Gray), c? ? ; 19. xi. 1905 (Nos. 64, 65, 66). 



8. Charmosyna stellae stellae Meyer. S ? ; 19. xi. 1905 (Nos. 67, 68). — Repre- 

 sented by C. stellae wahnesi on the mountains inland of Huon Gulf, aiid by C. stellae 

 goliathina on Mt. Goliath and the Snow Mountains. 



9. Opopsitta {Cyclopsittacus auct.) niqrifrons amahilix (Rchw.) — Cf ^OV. Zool. 

 1912. p. 194.— 2 ?; 21, 27. x. 1905 (Nos. 48, 78). 



10. Syma megarhyncha Salvad. 2 <? ; 4,19.x. 1905 (Nos. 31, 45).— Of. Xoi\ 

 Zool. 1901, p. 149. — It seems that forms of Syma torotoro occnr together with 

 S. megarhyHclia, otherwise we should have thought the latter was one of the various 

 subspecies of Syma torotoro. From the Aroa River we received S. torotoro meeki 

 and S. megarhyncha, though not exactly from the same spot. 



