( 1^-) 



LIST OF A COLLECTION OF BIRDS MADE BY MR. ALBERT 

 MEEK ON THE KUMUSI RIVER, NORTH-EASTERN 

 BRITISH NEW GUINEA. 



By the Hon. WALTER ROTHSCHILD and ERNST HARTBRT. 



THE Kiimnsi River lies in tbe northernmost part of north-eastern British New 

 Guinea, its month being not more than about 60 kilometres south of the frontier 

 of German New Guinea. Mr. Meek went up a considerable distance of the river, 

 but no great heights were reached. The collection was made between March 

 and September of 1907. Mr. Arthur Goodson has been very helpful in compiling 

 this list. 



1. Synoicus plumbeus Salvad. 



(?; 5. vii. 1907. " Iris dark red ; feet dirty yellow ; bill black, lower slate." 

 (No. 3283.) 



Gf. Noc. Zool. xiv. p. 447 (1007), where the various plumages in which we had 

 received this species from the Upper Aroa and Augabunga Rivers are described. 

 Probably, however, none of the birds described there were really adult males, 

 because we have now received from the Kumasi River a male, shot on July .5th, 

 1907, which agrees better still with Salvadori's original description of Synoicus 

 plumbms* The back is slaty black with plumbeous grey shaftlines and tips to the 

 feathers ; the linder surface plumbeous grey, slightly paler on the throat. Wing 

 about 9i) mm. (rather worn). " Iris dark red, feet dirty yellow, bill black and 

 slate." 



2. Excalfactoria chinensis lepida Hartl. 



Excalfactoria fep«/a Hartlaub, Silnungsber. ]'ei: Naturw. Unterh. Hamhunj, vii. p. 3 (1879— Duke 

 of York Island). 



(J ad.; Kumnsi River, September 3, 1907. (No. 3455.) 



This single specimen agrees best with oar single male from New Hanover, but 

 the belly and under tail-coverts are darker chestnut. 



3. Talegallus jobiensis jobiensis Meyer. 



Cf. N„v. Znol. 1901. p. 139. 



1 ? ad., 1? imm.; Kumnsi River, September 3, 1907. (Nos. 34.52, 3454.) 

 " Iris dark reddish brown, feet red, bill reddish brown." A male collected at 



Avera, Aroa River, March 3rd, 1903, has the iris marked as dull burnt yellow, feet 



bright red, bill light umber. 



Two eggs were found in September 1907. They are dnll, glossless, brownish 



brick-red, one more red, the other more chocolate. They measure 94 x 01 and 



100-5 X 64 mm. 



♦ The original diagnosis (Ami. Mm. Civ. Genova (2) .^iv. p. 152, lS9i), taken from a skin from 

 " Vakena," reads as follows : " Cinereus, gula vix pallidiorc ; vertice, ocoipite, coUo postico, dorso, 

 uropygio, supracaudalibus, lateribnsqae paallum fusco variis ; .alls sordide griseia ; reraigibus tertiariis, 

 apicem versus nigro variis, vel macnlatis, Al. 90 mm." 



