( 218 ) 



ON SOME RARE BIRDS FROM NEW GUINEA AND THE 



SULA ISLANDS. 



By Hon. WALTER ROTHSCHILD, PiiD. 



(Platos II. ami III.). 



PLATE II., fig. 1, is taken from the type of the curious parrot described by me 

 iu the Bull. B. 0. Club, Vol. VII." (No. LIV.), p. .54, May 1898, under the 

 name of Charmosi/na atrata. When I first saw this bird, which was shot on Mount 

 Scratchley, in British New Guinea, I thought it might be a melauistic specimen of 

 Charmostjna stcllae, but when examining it closer I did not think that this assump- 

 tion conld be justified. I have since received another skin from Mount Gaivara, 

 near Mount Victoria in British New Guinea, shot between 2000 and 9000 feet. It 

 agrees with the type of C. atrata, except that the lower back, mm]) and sides of the 

 belly are not carmine, but green, the bine patch thus being snvrounded by green and 

 not by red. One of the longest rectrices is present. It measures 234 mm., and is 

 dark green, brownish towards the tip, dirty yellowish at the tip. 



Unfortunately both specimens are not sexed, and it is therefore impossible to 

 say whether they are males or females. I fancy, however, that the second specimen, 

 without the red on the rum]i, is the female, the type the male. If it were certain 

 that the two specimens are male and female, I should consider C. atrata to be an 

 established species. The second specimen has one single red feather beneath the eye. 



It must be mentioned that the primaries are as emarginated as they are in 

 C. stellae, but Mr. Keulemans did not show this in the otherwise most accurate and 

 fine figure. 



Fig. 2 on PI. II. is Oreostruthus ftliginosus De Vis, described in the Ibis for 

 1897, and again in the Official Report on New Guinea for l.s97 (printed in 1898). 

 In the first place the new generic name Oreospiza was proposed for the genus, but 

 this being preoccupied, was afterwards substituted by Oreostruthus. 



The types were shot on the AVharton Range, at an altitude of 11,1UU feet. 

 We have received a good series from an altitude of about 11,000 feet on Mount 

 Knntsford, south of Mount Scratchley and the Wharton Range. I think that the 

 females are lighter brown. The wing measures 70 — 72 mm. in the adnlt male and 

 female. Young birds do not have the red on the under snrface. 



Fig. 1 on PI. III. represents a most remarkable Passerine bird from British 

 New Guinea, which evidently belongs to the group united as Timeliidae in the 

 Catalogue of Jiir(U, Vol. VII. In the JSull. B. 0. Club, Vol. VII. (No. LIV.), 

 p. 53 (May 1898), I have described this bird as Ifrita coronata, gen. et spec. nov. 



The specimen described there had been said to come from the low country 

 east of Port Moresby, but this information is evidently erroneous, as we have now 

 received five skins of the same bird shot by Jlr. Anthony on Mount Knntsford, 

 11,000 feet higii. Three agree with the type, and two of these are marked "cJ," but 

 two others are marked " ? ," and these latter have the elongated white patch of 

 feathers behind the eye replaced by a rusty buff one. The iris is said to be dark 

 lirown, the bill black, feet dark green. 



