S46 NOVITATES ZOOLOOICAE XXV. lOlS. 



NOTES ON PIGEONS. 



By E. HARTERT and A. T. GOODSON. 



The subspecies of Muscadivora aenea. 



rriHE specific name aenea was first given to Brisson's " Columba inoluccensis " 

 -L said to have been brought from the Moluccan Islands. As this species does 

 not occur on tlie Moluccas, we propose as the restricted locality for the name aenea 

 Flores, which seems to be the nearest place to the Moluccas where it occurs. 

 Even if this should be considered incorrect, no great harm can be done by. this 

 action, as the birds from the Greater and Lesser Sunda Islands, Sumatra, Borneo, 

 Java, Lombok, Flores and Sumba are inseparable. 



We have therefore Miiscadivora aenea aenea (L.) inhabiting the Sunda 

 Islands. These birds have the cheeks and ear-coverts, as well as the throat, 

 more tinged with pink and the hind-neck generally less jjure grey. Apparentl}' 

 ranging through the Malay Peninsula, M. aenea sylvatica (Tick.), describetl 

 from the forests of Borabhum and Dolbhum, and not from South India, is the 

 correct name for the Indian form, iir which the cheeks and ear-coverts as well as 

 the hind-neck are more uniform grey. This form seems to extend to the Andaman 

 Islands. Hainan specimens may be smaller. M. aenea -pusiUa (Blyth) would 

 be the name for the, as it seems, smaller birds from South India and Ceylon. 

 Another quite distinct form is the one from the Philippine Islands, M . aenea 

 chalybura (Bp.), in which the tail is less bluish from above and paler brown 

 from below, and the grey colour of the hindneck and upjjer mantle is lighter 

 and purer grey, and more sharply separated from the metallic green back. 



M. aenea palaicanensis (Bias.) has the tail again darker, as in 31. aenea aenea 

 and sylvatica, but the hindneck and back as grey and sharply separated from the 

 back as in M. aenea chalybura. 



We are inclined to think also M. instdaris, consobrina, oenothorax, and habiensis 

 should also be treated as subspecies of aenea, but the last is only known to us 

 from the description. Cf. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxi. p. 193 ; Hartert, Nov. ZooL. 

 1910. pp. 193, 194. 



To recaiiitulate we have thus : 



Muscadivora aenea aenea : Sunda Islands, east to Lombok, Flores, Sumba, 

 Pantar and Alor Islands, north throughout the Malay Peninsula. 



M. aenea sylvatica : India east of long. 80°, south to Tenasserim, the Chin 

 and Shan Hills, and the Andaman Islands. 



M. aenea subsp. ? : Two bu'ds, said to be a male and a female, from Hainan, 

 are rather small, wmgs S 228, $ 230 mm. Baker, Indian Pigeons and Doves, 

 p. 92, also mentions Hainan examples with a wing " on the average no longer 

 than that of the Ceylon bird." More material must be compared from Hainan, 

 to decide about this form. The colour seems to be that of the Indian sylvatica. 



M . aenea pnsilla : South India and Ceylon. Cf. Baker, Indian Pigeons and 

 Doves, p. 92. 



M. aenea palawai ensis : Palawan. 



M. aenea chalybvra : Philippine Islands (not Palawan !). 



