( 226 ) 



THE BIRDS OF BUEU, 



BEING A LIST OF COLLECTIONS .MADE ON THAT ISLAND BY 

 MESSRS. WILLIAM DOHERTY AND DUMAS. 



By ERNST HARTERT. 



[Plate IV.] 



IN March 1897 our friend Dohertv collected near the well-koown port of Kayeli, 

 which used to be Mr. AVallace's hunting grounds, and later ou that of Brniju's 

 collectors. Doherty's collection did not therefore contain any novelties ; but many 

 species peculiar to Burn were represented in large series and different stages of 

 plumage, and he obtained one male of the very rare Monarcha buruensis A. B. Meyer. 

 About eighteen months later Mr. Dumas, the former companion and skinner of 

 the late Alfred Everett, visited Burn by order of Mr. Everett, and with the special 

 instruction to collect at high elevations. He reached Mount Mada, where he was 

 busy at an elevation of about 30il0 ft. ; and, though a still higher ground should 

 have been collected over, and though it is evident that Everett's supervision was 

 absent (new birds being obtained iu single immature specimens only), he did very 

 well, as he sent a large collection of very well prepared skins from Kayeli and 

 Mount Mada, with a surprising number of new forms. The principal interest 

 attached to these forms is the relationship of many of them to Malayan forms, 

 which were never before known to enter the Moluccan area. It will be of the 

 utmost interest to learn whether other Moluccan islands have a similar mountain 

 fauna with Western (Indo-Malayan) elements to the same extent as Burn, and it 

 must not be supposed that the last bird is already discovered on Burn. For such 

 special zoogeographical interest compare Prioniturus mada (of Celebensian affinity), 

 Microeca addita, Eri/thromyias buruensis, Phijllergates everetti dumasi {of Unndanese 

 affinities), Androphilus disturbans, Acanthopneuste everetti, and Geocichla dumasi. 



1. Astur pallidiceps Salvad. 

 (Cf. Orn. Pap. I. p. G4.) 

 One young male was procured by Dohertv at Kayeli in March ISO". " Its iris 

 was pale brown, feet orange-ochreous, claws black, bill black, cere and bare skiu 

 round the eyes orange-ochreous." 



2. Accipiter ceramensis (Schleg.). 

 One fine aAxAi female was obtained by Dumas on Mount Mada, at about 3000 ft. 

 above the sea. This is the bird called Accipiter rubricollis by Sharpe (Cat. B. I.) 

 and Salvadori {Orn. Pap. I.) ; but Schlegel's name, Nisus cirrhocephalus ceramensis 

 (^Mus. P. B. Astures, p. 39, 18G2), has priority. Sharpe repeats in his new Hand- 

 List, I. p. 253, the former mistake that the species (or subspecies ?) occurs iu Burn 

 and Morotai, while it should be Ceram and Burn, tlie species inhabiting the Northern 

 Moluccas (Batjan, Halmahera, and Mort)-) being eri/thrauchen (cf. Salvadori, Orn. 

 Pap. I. pp. OS, (i9). 



