86 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



more of these Pigeons if possible, and subsequently Mr. W. G. 

 Woolnough, B.Sc, succeeded in shooting the specimen herein 

 referred to, on the islet of Fualifeke, Funafuti Atoll, on 9th 

 August, 1897. The Pigeon was presented to the Trustees of the 

 Australian Museum. It proved to be a female Globicera pacijica, 

 slightly smaller, but precisely similar in plumage to an example 

 obtained about the same time from the Rev. H. A. Robertson of 

 Erromanga, New Hebrides. There is, however, scarcely any 

 indication of the knob at the base of the bill and it is probably 

 similar to the specimen on which Bonaparte bestowed the name 

 of Globicera microcera, a synonym of this species. This may be 

 due to immaturity, for the feathers surrounding the bill and on 

 the chin, are not quite so white as in examples obtained in other 

 islands of the Pacific, and in which the knob on the bill is more 

 developed. In the Ornithology of the "United States Exploring 

 Expedition, "■'^ Oassin, writes as follows of this species: "The 

 knob at the base of the bill in this bird is not so greatly 

 developed as in some other species, at least this is the case in the 

 specimens now before us, from the collection of the Expedition. 

 This appendage occurs in several species of the group of fruit- 

 eating Pigeons, and is we suspect, not only peculiar to, or largest 

 in the male bird, but also most observable at the commencement 

 of the season of incubation, like the appendages on the head and 

 neck, or wattles, of the turkey." 



The specimen of G. paci/ica from Funafuti, measures : — total 

 length 12-5 inches, wing 8-8, tail .^-2, bill 0-95, tarsus, 095. A 

 female from Erromanga measures: — total length 14'5, wing 9*2, 

 tail, 5-6, bill imperf., tarsus 1. 



Since the receipt of the above specimen, Mr. J. Stanley 

 Gardiner, B.A., of Caius College, Cambridge, has kindly sent me 

 a reprint from The Ibis for January 1898, containing an account 

 by Dr. Hans Gadow, of the birds collected by Mr. Gardiner on 

 Funafuti, and later on at Rotumah. Nine species were obtained 

 on the former atoll, of which Nuirienius tahitensis, Charadrius 

 fulvus, Strepsilas interpres, and Gygis Candida, are additions to 

 its avi-fauna. Dr. Gadow also remarks " The following species 

 was observed but not obtained : — Carpophaga pistrinaria." 



Evidently this is the Pigeon Mr. Gardiner informed me, on 

 his return to Sydney, that he had seen on Funafuti, but was 

 unable to identify in the Museum. Hitherto, this species, of 

 which we have a line series in the collection, has only been recorded 

 from the Solomon Islands, about a thousand miles from Funafuti. 

 It is a larger and much lighter coloured bird, and if well seen 

 could hardly be mistaken for Globicera pacifica. If Mr. Gardiner 

 is correct in his determination, there are two .species of Pigeons 

 frequenting the Ellice Group. 



Cassin— U. S. Expl. Exped. Orn. p. 265 (1858). 



