( 141* ) 



? Fergusson Island. Wing, 84 mm. 



? „ „ „ 82 mm. 



c? „ „ „ 8:5 mm. 



? „ ,, „ 62 mm. 



S „ „ „ «3 mm. 



c? „ „ „ 83 mm. 



<? „ ,, ,, 84 mm. 



? „ „ „ 81 mm. 



cJ „ „ » 84 mm. 



? „ „ „ 82-5 mm. 



? „ „ „ 83 mm. 



(? 



84 mm. 



14. Syma megarhyncha Salvad. 



In Ann. Mits. Cie. Genoca iSiJO, \>. TO, Count Salvador! described this large 

 Syma for the first time. The type is a male. We have received a male (marked 

 female by its ignorant collector) shot in the Kotoi district, SOiHi feet high, in Angnst 

 1898, by Mr. Anthony. The iris is marked as dark brown, bill yellow (though the 

 upper bill has a black tip for nearly 2 cm.), feet yellow. We have i^o females, one 

 from British New Guinea, without e.xact locality, purchased long ago from a dealer, 

 and another from Mt. Scratchley, and we have seen another in the British Museum. 

 The females have the crown black, younger individuals the upper bill entirely black, 

 older ones only a black line along the culmen. Older individuals have no white nuchal 

 patch, younger ones a large one. Prof. Reichenow has described an i\,dx\\t female as 

 Syma ici'iskei (Orn. Mouatsber. 1900, p. 180). We have examined his type, which 

 is now in the British Museum. There is no doubt that Syma weiskel is \h% female 

 of megarhyncha, although the type has erroneously been marked " S " by the collector. 

 Having examined over a hundred and fifty examples of Syma, we have enough 

 experience to tell at a glance whether any known Syma is a male or sifemalc. The 

 " manche Fiirbungseigenthiimlichkeiten," vrhich, as Prof. Reichenow thinks, show 

 that it is a distinct species and nut the. female of iS. megarhyncha, are those separating 

 the sexes in this genus. About the white nuchal patch see under No. 11, Syma 

 torotoro meeld, 



Melidora macrorliina (Less.). 



Messrs. Salvador! {Orn. Pup. 1. pp. .JOO to 5o2), and Sharpe {Cat. B. Brit 

 Mus. XVII. pp. 201 to 203), distinguish two so-called species, one from New Guinea, 

 Salwatty, Waigiu and Mysol — i.e. M. macrorliina — and another from Jobi, 

 M. jobiensis, of which no specimens seem to be known except the two female types 

 in Italy. The latter are distinguished from M. macrorhina only by the want of the 

 olive-ochreous margins to the feathers of the crown. If this form is distinct it is 

 merely a representative subsjiecies, and extends from Jobi along the north coast to 

 the Astrolabe Bay in Kaiser Wiliielm's Land, as shown by 2 females from Konstautin- 

 hafen, which lack the olive-ochreous tips to the .feathers of the crown, and which 

 we therefore take to he jobiensis. It is, however, interesting to note that we have 

 a 7nale from " Mt. Maori, 3000 ft., near Humboldt Bay," collected in January 1899 

 by J. M. Dumas, which does not seem to difi'er in any way from males of macrorhina 

 from the Berau Peninsula and South-Easteru New Guinea. We also liave a. female 

 collected somewhere in German New Guinea by Captains Cotton and Webster, 



