NOTES ON BIRDS COLLECTED BY DR. W. L. ABBOTT 

 ON PULO TAYA, BERHALA STRAIT, SOUTHEASTERN 

 SUMATRA. 



By Harry C. Oberholser. 

 Of the Biological Survey, United States Department of Agriculture. 



Piilo Taya, or the island of Taya/ as it is sometimes called, is situ- 

 ated at the eastern end of Berhala Strait. This makes it about 30 

 miles south of the eastern end of Lingga Island, about the same dis- 

 tance southeast of Singkap Island, and slightly farther from Cape 

 Bon, the nearest point on the southeastern coast of Sumatra. The 

 island is oval in shape, about one and one-half miles in length from 

 north to south, by three-quarters of a mile in width; is of granitic 

 formation ; and has some coral reefs. The shore is steep, and a double 

 peak rises inland to a height of 630 feet. There is an excellent spring 

 on the western side. Pulo Taya is uninhabited, but fishermen from 

 Singkap Island visit it to snare the Nicobar pigeons. It is wholly 

 forested, and birds seem to be fairly numerous, though of few species. 

 The presence of a few rats and squirrels is reported by natives of 

 neighboring islands. 



Two small islands, the Nyamok Islets, lie about a mile off the 

 northern end of Pulo Taya. The larger of these is only some 200 or 

 300 yards long, and about 10 acres in extent; and neither is over 150 

 feet high. They support a thin growth of jungle, but their bird 

 life, so far as observed by Dr. W. L. Abbott, is, except for Caloenas 

 nicoharica, almost negligible. Because of their close proximitj'^ these 

 islets are included in the present paper on the avifauna of Pulo Taya. 



Doctor Abbott visited Pulo Taya and the Nyamok Islets from 

 July 26 to July 28, 1899. His collection of birds, which, as usual, 

 he presented to the United States National Museum, numbered 30 

 specimens, two of which, sunbirds, have subsequently disappeared. 

 The remaining 28 represent 8 species, and include three new subspe- 

 cies, two of which, herewith described, are apparently endemic. 

 The other, of wider geographic range, has already been named in 

 another paper.^ In addition to the birds collected by Doctor Abbott, 

 there are included in the following list two species, designated by 



1 Saja Island of some maps. 



* Satiropatis cJtloris cyanescens Oberholser, Proc. U., S. Nat. Mus., vol. 52, February 8, 

 1917, p. 189 (Pulo Taya, oflf the southeastern coast of Sumatra). 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum. Vol. 55— No. 2268. 



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