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NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE, -^iSi^ 



Vol. XXI. JUNE 1914. No. 2. 



ON THE BIRDS OF ROOK ISLAND, IN THE BISMARCK 



ARCHIPELAGO. 



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

 HARTERT, M.A., Ph.D. 



ROOK 18 LAND is situated at about lat. 5° 29' 8., long. 147° 46' E., and is 

 separated from New Britain (Neu-Poiiimern) by the Dampier Strait. 

 Dampier called the island Sir George Rook's Island, and it is therefore incorrect 

 to spell its name " Rooke Island," as we have seen it. Though only 22 miles 

 long and 10 to 12 broad, Rook Island has high and imposing mountains in its 

 interior. 



Mr. Albert S. Meek collected there in the months of July and August 1913, 

 and made a collection of birds containing fifty species. This collection is of 

 considerable interest, as it is the first ever made on Rook Island. The ornis is 

 entirely that of New Britain (Neu-Pommern). One species represents a new- 

 subspecies, i.e. Edolisoma amboinense rooki nob., but it does not follow that this 

 is absent from New Britain, as the greater portion of that large island is as yet 

 oruithologically nne.xplored, since collections have hitherto only been made on the 

 northern parts, i.e. the Gazelle Peninsula. Mr. Meek found the natives friendly 

 enough, and they brought at once food, such as taro, sago, and fruit. In 1912 two 

 white men had been killed ; a punitive expedition was sent in due course, and at 

 present anyhow the inhabitants are well disposed — ^at least where Meek stayed. 



The Birds of the Bismarck Archipelago have been ably reviewed by Professor 

 Reichenow in the Mitt. Zoolog. Samml. Mils. Naturku/ide, Berlin, vol. i. Heft 3. 

 Since then (1899) appeared, among other minor contributions : Dr. Heinroth's impor- 

 tant " Ornith. Ergebn. der I. D. Siidsee Exped. von Br. Mencke" in Joiirn.f Orn. 

 1902, p. 390; 1903, p. 65 ; Hartert " On Birds from New Hanover," /(5««, 1899, p. 277; 

 Rothschild and Hartert's articles on the Birds of the Solomon Islands in Nov. Zool. 

 1901, 1902, 1905, and 1908, which have considerably advanced the formerly scanty 

 knowledge of those islands. In Ball. Brit. Orn. Club xix. p. 28 (1906), and Nov. 

 Zool. 1911, p. 168, pi. I., we described and figured a wonderful pigeon from New 

 Britain, which we called Ilenicophaps foersteri. 



1. Tringa hypoleuca L. 



{Ti-ingoides, Actitis or Totanas hypoleucus auct.) 

 Trhiga Hypoleucos Linnaeus, Syst. Xat. ed. x. 1, p. 149 (1758 — Europe). 



tJ, Rook Island, 2. viii. 1913. (No. 5894, A. S. Meek Col).) 

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