( 24G ) 



wing measming only 267 mm., while My.sol specimens have the wing 280 mm. long, 

 and the wings of those from Dutch New Guinea in Mr. Rothschild's Museum measure 

 320 to 330 mm. The bills differ in [iroportion. It seems to me, and I have no doubt 

 that a large series with exact localities .4ated will prove beyond doubt, that the 

 birds from the Western Papuan Islands form a well-marked subspecies, C. triton 

 macrolopha Kosenb., and that the birds from Fergusson, Normanby, and Trobriand 

 Islands are separable as another subspecies, to which the name trobriundi might be 

 attached. E. H. 



54. Ninox goldiei (iumey. 

 Fergusson. " Iris and feet yellow." 



iV. goldiei has been described from " S.E. New Guinea." Unfortunately many of 

 Goldie's skins had no exact locality, though most of them were collected by Hunstein. 

 The locality " S.E. New Guinea " may have been erroneous, as in the case of 

 Phonygama huTisteini (vide supra). Mr. Meek has now sent a number of skins of this 

 owl from Fergusson. Two of them I sent to !Mr. J. H. Gurney, who kindly compared 

 them with the three in the Norwich Museum, and who wrote : " I compared your 

 two skins with the three at our Museum, with which they are clearly identical, but 

 your pair are on the whole a trifle smaller than ours, and they certainly are a shade 

 darker on the back." After measuring all Meek's specimens it is evident that they 

 are not smaller than the types, one having the wings even longer than the types. 

 The wings vary fi'om 208 to 223 mm., the males being smaller. The shade of colom- 

 on the back differs in darkness. Mr. Sharpe has suggested that N. temcolm' Earns. 

 is identical with N. goldiei, but there is hardly a character in Kamsay's description 

 (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. IV. p. 466) that is found in N. goldiei, which is also very 

 much larger. Some of our birds have white spots on the wing-coverts, others not. 

 The breast is more or less mixed with white, and of a more or less deep rufous colour. 



E. H. 



55. Astur etorques (Salvad.). 



Jlr. :Meek has most diligently collected a series of extremely interesting .hawks 

 on the several islands, and we must be very thankful for that, but the study of these 

 specimens has proved to be very difficult, and took a long time. There are before 

 me three ferncdes and one male, all adult, from Kiriwina, Trobriand Islands, which 

 are all, undoubtedly, the same species ; further one, probably adult, mcde and a young 

 female in first plumage from Fergusson Island, and one not quite adult female from 

 Woodlark Island. These latter I believe to belong to the same form, and I am of 

 opinion that all these birds are Astur etorques (Salvad,). (See Orn. Papuas. 1. 

 p. 49, Addenda III. p. 508, etc.) 



All the specimens from the Trobriands are evidently adult birds, two shot from 

 their nests. All, except one, show indications of, or even well perceptible, though 

 faint, cross-barrings on the abdomen, and a greyish wash on the chest. 



UliQ females have the wings 268, 270, and 251 mm., the latter evidently younger, 

 being more barred and of a darker rufous colour below. All these females have 

 distinctly barred luuler wing-coverts, one of them having the latter washed with a 

 Viluish grey, a kind of "bloom" of the latter colour being perceptible everywhere 

 below. The male has only very faint indications of bars below, and hardly any on the 

 under wing-coverts. Its wing measures 220 mm. The ground-colour of the under 

 parts of all these is vinous rufous in different shades, some being darker, some paler 



