212 NoVlTATES ZOOLOGICAE XXI, I!)14. 



A specimen from New Britain with a wing of 130 mm. wonlil also Ijeloug to 

 this form, though the underside is of a somewhat paler gre}' and the bill smaller. 



Evidently C. assimi/is, and therefore fo/iior as well, is a subspecies of 

 C. sepulcralis. (Cf Stresemann, Nov. Zool. 1912, p. 334.) 



22. Chrysococcyx plagosus (Lath.). 



¥ , Rook Island, 23. vii. 1013. (No. 5794, A. S. Meek Coll.) 

 Mr. Meek sent ns also an adult male from a small islet in Huon Gnlf, shut 

 5. vii. 1913. 



23. Tanysiptera nigriceps Scl. 



Tanysiptem nigriceps Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1877. p. 105 (Duke of York Island, type in 

 Brit. Mus.). 



10 cj ad., 5 ? ad. and fere ad. 4 jnn. Rook Island, July and August 1913. 

 (Nos. 5709, 5732, 5745, 5851, 5852, 5853, 5862, 5877, 5878, 5905, 5906, 5910, 5924, 

 5934, 5937, 5940, 5941, 5953, 5968, A. S. Meek Coll.) 



All these specimens are tawny buff underneath, with the throat generally a 

 shade paler, not whitish. Only the youngest bird, No. 5862, has some blackish 

 lines on the breast, and two of the juveniles have rufous buff tips to the upper wing- 

 coverts. These young birds have also blue tips to the feathers on the occiput and 

 behind the ears, and the white of the back and rump is tinged with buff. The 

 fully adult males and females have all the tail-feathers pure snow-white, while 

 young birds have the outer rectrices dull black with a white stripe along the outer 

 edge of the inner webs ; the middle rectrices have the greatest portion of the outer 

 webs blue, the inner webs white. Other individuals, evidently not as old as the 

 birds with entirely white tails, have more or less blue to the outer webs of the lateral 

 rectrices. Only two of this fine series have the whole tail pure white without any 

 trace of blue or black, but several others have only a smudge of blue or grej'-black 

 to some of the lateral rectrices. 



It seems that all specimens hitherto known from New Britain and New Ireland 

 have the lateral tail-feathers partially black and blue, and even the central pair 

 with blue on the outer webs. It will be necessary to have a better series from those 

 islands in order to make sure that the tail gets entirely white on New Britain as 

 well as on Rook Island. 



24. Halcyon tristrami tristrami Lay. 



Halcyon tristrami Layard, Ibis 1880. p. 460, pi. xv. (Doubtfully Makira Harbour, Solomon Is., 

 but the types in the Tristram collection, Liverpool Museum, are marked " Blanche Bay, 

 New Britain," and the latter is undoubtedly the typical locality ; cf. Nor. Zool. WOy. pp. 256, 

 257). 



$ ad. Rook Island, 27. vii. 1913. (No. 5844, A. S. Meek Coll.) 

 "Iris dark brown ; bill black (about basal half of) lower mandible white ; feet 

 dark slate." 



25. Halcyon sancta Vig. & Horsf. 



Halcyon sanctua Vigors and Horsfield, Trans. Linn. Soc. London, xv. p. 200 (1826 — Australia). 



7 J ?, Rook Island, July and August 1913. (Nos. 5730, 6736, 6752, 5753, 

 5879, 5898, 5899, A. S. Meek Coll.) 



