NOVITATES ZOOLOOICAE XXI. 1914 213 



26. Ceyx lepida sacerdotis Rams. 



Ceyx sacerdotis Ramsay, Jonrti. Linn. Soc. London .xvi. p. 128 (1882 — "New Britain"). 



7 c?? ad. Rook Island, Jnly and August 1913. (Nos. 5715, 5739, 5807, 5822, 

 5904, 5918, 5928, A. S. Meek Coll.) 



" Iris brown, dark brown. Bill black and dark burnt red or black and red 

 Feet bright red." 



In the skin all these birds have the upper mandible black or reddish black, the 

 lower red or red shaded with black. Reicheuow, probably not having good skins 

 before him, and following the Catalogue of Birds, where (xvii. p. 184) a specimen 

 from the Solomon Islands, but not the true sacerdotis is described, calls the bill 

 red, but Heinroth {Journ.f. Oni. 1902, p. 441) describes the upper bill as blackish 

 to black-red, the lower mandible as bright red. This agrees perfectly with what 

 one sees on our skins. 



We do not hesitate to look upon this beautiful and rare little bird as a form 

 of C. lepida. 



27. Alcyone websteri Hart. 



Alcyone wehsteri Hartert, Webster's Through New Guinea, Appendix p. 371 (1898 — New Hanover) ; 

 id. Ibis 1899. p. 278. pi. iii. 



<? ? ad.. Rook Island, 2. viii. 1913. (Nos. 5895, 5996, A. S. Meek Coll.) 

 " Iris dark brown ; bill entirely black ; feet vandyke brown." 

 The male agrees entirely with the type from New Hanover; the female is 

 more rusty rufous underneath. Wing J 90 ; ? 87-5 mm. 



o 



8. Eurystomus orientalis pacificus (Lath.). 



Cvracias 2}acifica Latham, Inil. Orii. Suppl. p. xxvii. (1801 — " Nova Hollandia '' ! Mathews quotes 

 " New South Wales," and we believe that he had good reasons to accept N. S. Wales as the 

 exact terra typica, though — as in many otlier cases — he did not state them). 



2 c?. Rook Island, 31. vii., 2. viii. 1913. (Nos. 5888, 5901, A. S. Meek Coll.) 

 29. Eurystomus crassirostris crassirostris Scl. 



Eurystomus crassirostris Sclater, Proc. Zunl, Soc. London, 1809. p. 121. (Cf. Nor. Zool. 190.S. p. 197, 

 where New Britain was accepted as the " terra typica.") 



S ad., Rook Island, 2. viii. 1913. (No. 5902, A. S. Meek Coll.) 

 30. Merops ornatus Lath. 



Merops oniatus Latham, Ind. Orn. Suppl. p. xxxv. (1801 — Australien). 



8c??, Rook Island, 19.-22. vii. 1913. (Nos. 5738, 5754, 5760, 5773, 5774, 

 5775, 5776, 5779, A. S. Meek Coll.) 



31. Pitta macklotii gazellae Nenm. 



[Pitta Macklotii Temminck, PL Col. 537 (1834 — Type from Lobo, collected by Salomon Muller).] 

 Pitta mackloti gazellae Neumann, Orn. Monatsber. 1908. p. 27 (" Gazelle-Halbinsel Neu-Pommem," 

 i.e. New Britain). 



4 c?, 1 ?, Rook Island, 23.-29. vii. 1913. (Nos. 5790, 5791, 5792, 5861, 5886, 

 A, S. Meek Coll.) 



The Rook Island specimens belong clearly to P. m. gazellae, which mnst be 

 separated from P. m. mackloti as well as from P. in. novaehibernicae, though the 

 characters by which it is distinguished are by no means constant, each of them 



