Vol. 34, pp. 55-58 March 31, 1921 



PROCEEDINGS 



OP THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



FOUR NEW BIRDS FROM CELEBES. 

 BY J. H. RILEY.i 



r^ 



This is the fourth paper^ deaUng with the birds collected in 

 North and Middle Celebes by Mr. H. C. Raven. 



For the loan of material used in working out two of the forms, 



I am indebted to the authorities of the American Museum of 



Natural History, New York, and to Mr. J. H. Fleming, Toronto, 



Ontario. 



Scolopax celebensis, sp. nov. 



Type, adult male, U. S. National Museum, No. 226,174, Rano Rano, 

 Celebes, Dec. 22, 1917. Collected by H. C. Raven (orig. No. 4838). 



Similar to Scolopax saturata but russet notches on primaries much larger 

 and deeper in color; wing and culmen longer. Wing, 188; culmen, 86.5. 

 mm. 



Remarks.— Mr. Raven found this woodcock inhabiting bamboo thickets 

 in the mountains at the type locality, where they only came out at night to 

 feed. The only specimen he succeeded in recovering had been badly 

 eaten by ants, as it had been shot the evening before, and made into a 

 rough skeleton. The flight feathers had been left on the wing and some 

 feathers around the base of the bill and the end of the tibia. The flight 

 feathers alone show this to be a very distinct species of woodcock, quite 

 different from Scolopax saturata and more like rusticola, having the russet 

 notches on both webs of the primaries, but of a much deeper color; the 

 wing-coverts are of a different pattern, the russet darker and confined to 

 notches along the border not bars, the rest of the feather brownish-black, 

 like the primaries. 



Judging from the plate^ and remarks, Scolopax rusticola viira Hartert 

 approaches the Celebes species, but the latter has a much darker wing, and 

 as the former is supposed to be a resident on the Island of Amami in the 

 northern Riu Kiu group, it is not likely to occur in Celebes. 



This genus has not been reported from Celebes before. 



1 Published by permission of the Secretarj' of the Smithsonian Institution. 

 2Cf. Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., 31, 1918, pp. 155-160; 32, 1919, pp. 93-96; 33, 1920, pp. 

 55-58. 



3Nov. Zool. 24, 1917, 437, pi. 2. 



10— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. 34, 1921. (55) 



