NOVITATES ZOOLOOICAE XXV. 1918. 311 



A FEW ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF ROSSEL 

 ISLAND, LOUISIADE GROUP. 



By lord ROTHSCHILD, F.R.S.. Ph.D., and ERNST HARTERT, Ph.D. 



TT7 E have again received a collection of 190 skins collected on Rossel Island, 

 in November and December 1915 and January 1916, by the brothers 

 Eichhorn, during Mr. Albert S. Meek's illness. 



A Hst of a former collection has been given in Novitates Zoologicae, vi. 

 pp. 76-84, and a comparative Hst of the birds known at the time from St. Aignan 

 (or Misima), Sudest (or Tagula), and Rossel Island in Novitates Zoologicae, 

 1899, p. 216. 



Pachycephala pectoralis rosseliana Hart. 



A fresh beautiful series of exquisite skins fully agrees with the tjrpes. Cf. 

 Bull. B.O. Club, viii. p. viii. (1898) ; Novitates Zoologicae, 1899, p. 76. 



A renewed comparison of the specimens from St. Aignan shows that the 

 form from there must be separated from rosseliana. The bill of the St. Aignan 

 specimens is thinner, slenderer, the yellow of the breast and abdomen evidently 

 never attains the richness in colour shown in the true rosseliana, the back is 

 Ughter, not so brownish, more greenish, the lesser upper wing-coverts have less 

 deep black bases and the primary coverts are less deep black and more edged 

 with greenish. Wings of four males 93'5-95"6 mm. 



We have only two females from St. Aignan, and, considering the varia- 

 bility, both according to age and individually, of the females and juveniles, we 

 refrain from saying anything about them. We propose to call the St. Aignan 

 form 



Pachycephala pectoralis misimae subsp. nov. 



Type: 3 ad., St. Aignan or Misima Island, 29. xi. 1897, No. 1044, A. 

 Meek coll. 



We regret to say that the two Pachycephalae described by Ramsay as 

 P. collaris from Courtance Island, close to South-Eastern New Guinea, and 

 innominata from Teste Island, not far from the latter, are stiU unknown to us. 

 Neither rosselianu nor misimae, however, can be one of them. P. innominata is 

 described as having ( (J) an ashy grey tail, and the crown scliistaceous towards the 

 nape ; collaris is said to have the tail oUve-brown above and the upper wing- 

 coverts blacldsh, broadly margined with olive-grey. In both rosseliana and 

 misimae the tail is olive-green, the entire crown pure black, the upper wing- 

 coverts olivaceous green, not olive-grey. 



Dicaeum geelvinkianum rosseli R. & H. 



Dicaeum geelvitikiamim rosseli Rothscliilrl & Hartert. Bull. B.O. Cl,ib, xwv. p. 32 (li)14 — Rossel 

 Island). 



A series of recent specimens fully corroborates our original description. 

 Specimens from St. Aignan, on the other hand, are not separable from D. g. 

 nitidum of Sudest Island. 



