( 238 ) 



I should say spun on to it, and outside covered with half-decayed di'y leaves. It is 

 rather small for the bird, and consists chief!}' of dry grass, but is inside thickly lined 

 with very soft snow-white vegetable silk. It liad one egg, which is creamy white, with 

 some pale reddish spots all over, and with a close ring of pale browiiish red .sjiots and 

 dots near the broader end, as well as with a few deep brown hair-lines encircling the 

 egg above the middle. It measures 20 : 14'3 mm. E. H. 



13. Ptilotis spilogaster Grant {Ibis, 189f>, p. 251). 



Fergusson Island. <J ? . " hi.-; hazel." Jlr. Ogilvie Grant has kindly compared 

 the two specimens with the type of the species in the British Museum and found 

 them to be perfectly alike. E. H. 



14. Ptilotis analoga Rchb. 

 Fergusson Island. Iris dark liazel or " black." Bill and feet dark grey. Nests 

 were found in November and December. The nest hangs in the fork of a branch, is 

 a deep cup, much narrower at the bottom, wide on toji, and consists of small grassy 

 rootlets and leaves. It is outside about 75 mm. higli, the cui> about GO deep, above 

 about 50 to 75 mm. across. The two eggs are pure wliite and resemble tliose of our 

 nuthatch, being somewhat sparsely speckled with rufous brown and brownish red, 

 measuring 21-5 : 10 and 22 : 16 mm. E. H. 



15. Philemon novaeguineae subtuberosus sulisp. nov. 



Four perfectly adult specimens of both sexes from Fergusson Island, some taken 

 from the nest, differ from a series of skins from different parts of New Guinea, 

 Batanta, and Salwatti in having the hump at the base of the culmen distinctly 

 smaller and in the pale tips to the rectrices being much less developed, anil in fact 

 hardly or not at all perceptible. The iris is " hazel." 



This sub.species is certainly much more distinct than the form described as 

 " Tropidorhynclms aruensis " by Dr. A. B. ^Ie\'er, Zcilschr. ges. Ornilh. I. 

 p. 21fi. This latter form is stated to differ from Philemon novaeguineae Mull, 

 in its longer and higher bill with a higher hump, a more feathered forehead, and 

 paler colour of the body. Four specimens from M'okan, Lutor, and Giaba-Lengar, 

 all Aru Islands, do not show a sign of any of these differences, except that the 

 hill is slightly longer than in the majority of New Guinea s])ecimens, and that tlie 

 hump in one, from Wokan, is decidedl}' higher than in any I was able to com- 

 pare from New Guinea. The feathering of the forehead is not at all different 

 from those from New Guinea, nor is there any difference in colour. Therefore the 

 Aru form cannot jiossibly be anything more than a subspecies of /'. novaeguineae, but 

 the majority of ornithologists will no doubt follow Salvadori, who (Aggiunte Orn. Pap. 

 II. p. 129) places P. aruensis as a synonym under P. novaeguineae. Why Dr. 

 Meyer in his original description compared his T. aruensis with P. timoriensis 

 rather than with P. novaeguineae I cannot understand, for in size, colour, and hump 

 it stands undoubtedly nearest to /'. novaeguineae. Nor can I understand how one 

 can place P. jobiensis Meyer and P. novaeguineae into different genera, as Salvadori 

 does in his Orn. Papuasia. I should rather agree with Dr. Gadow, who recognises 

 P. jobiensis only as a subspecies of P. novaeguineae, for there is a small hump on the 

 base of the bill, but the somewhat different forehead, whicli is not feathered, but 

 covered with scanty stiff lihick hairs, justifies its specific position. In any case Dr. 

 Meyer's view must be upheld that it is congeneric with P. novaeguineae, though I 



