23StP. 



NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE. 



Vol. XII. SEPTEMBER, 1905. No. 2. 



FURTHER CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR KNOWLEDGE OE 

 THE ORNIS OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS. 



BY THE HON. WALTER ROTHSCHILD, Ph.D., and Dr. ERNST HARTERT. 



(Plate X.) 



IN Xov. Zool. viii., 1901, pp. 170-89, 373-8:.', we have discussed the birds of 

 the islands Kuhimbaiigra, Florida, aud Giiadalcanar ; in vuL i.\., 1902, 

 pp. 581-94, we wrote about those from Isabel (Bugotu) and Treasury Island. The 

 indefatigable collector Mr. Albert S. Meek has recentl}' returned to the Suloiuon 

 Archipelago, and has succeeded in making very valuable collections on Ueiidova, 

 Gizo, New Georgia, Choiseul, and Bougainville, notwithstanding the bad climate 

 and the notorious ferocity of the natives. The birds collected by Mr. Meek are 

 of course of the highest interest, because our knowledge of the birds of liendova 

 aud New Georgia was imperfect, and of those of Gizo, Choiseul, aud Bougainville 

 we knew heretofore nothing. It is true that Dr. Julius von Madarasz, in Termcs- 

 zetrajzi Fiizetek xxv., 1902, pp. 350-51, described nine species as coming from 

 Bougainville, but we have shown {Annale.'i Mm. Sat. HuiKjar. i., 1903, pp. 447-50) 

 that these did not come from Bougainville, but from German New (iuinea. 

 Needles.s to say that the large collection received from Jlr. Meek fully bears 

 out our conclusions, I.e. 



The number of remarkable new species in the collect ion from the northern 

 islands is surprisingly small. This is, however, explained by the fact that the ornis 

 of Bougainville, Choiseul, and Isabel is, on the whole, the same. Moreover, Mr. 

 Meek was of course not able to penetrate far into the interior, but had to restrict 

 his collecting to the coastal portions of the islands. There can be no doubt 

 whatever that the mountains in the interior of these islands, and especially those 

 of Bougainville, are still inhabited by unknown, ditfereutiated forms, although 

 Meek's collections give a splendid idea of the zoogeographical relations of these 

 islands. 



A few startling, wonderful discoveries were also made : the remarkable new 

 l)igeon Microyonra meehi, the gaudy Ihdcijon boayainrilliji, and I he sombre Corras 

 meeki, while in other groups highly interesting new subspecies were discovered, 

 as, for examjde, in the genera .Uliu\ Pitta, and Graucaltis. 



The collection shows the following interesting facts : — 



]. The ornis of the ishui<ls of the nortluirn chain — i.r. (ho three islands of 

 Bougainville, Choiseul aud Isaljcl— i.s generally alike ; only in comparatively few 

 cases representative subspecies are found on the various islands of the northern 

 chain. 



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