360 PROCEEDINGS OF TEE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. 55. 



Geographic distribution. — Togian Islands. 



Remarks. — No examples of this supposed race have been available 

 in the present connection; but, if the types represent the adult male, 

 the tinge of buffy on the sides of the body would seem to indicate a 

 subspecific difference from the Celebesian /Sauropatis chloris forsteni. 

 The form is here provisionally recognized, pending further investiga- 

 tion with sufficient material from the Togian Islands. 



SAUROPATIS CHLORIS ENIGMA (Haiteit). 



Halcyon enigma Hartert, Novit. Zool., vol. 11, No. 1, March 25, 1904, p. 199. 

 (Salibabu [Lirung] Island, Talaut Islands.) 



Suhspeci-fiG characters. — Similar to Sauropatis chloris forsteni., 

 but averaging smaller. 



Measurements. — Male : ^ Wing, 93.3 mm. ; tail, 58 ; exposed culmen, 

 39.8; tarsus, 13.2. 



Both sexes : ^ Wing, 90-104 mm. ; tail, 54-65 ; culmen, 30^0, tar- 

 sus, 13 mm. 



Type locality. — Salibabu Island, Talaut Islands (north of Cele- 

 bes). 



Geographic distribution. — Talaut Islands. 



Remarks. — While I have not been able to examine many specimens 

 of this form, it seems to me a somewhat unsatisfactory race, possibly 

 not sufficiently distinct from Sauropatis chloris forsteni to retain a 

 separate name. Size is apparently the only character, and the differ- 

 ence in this is not by any means so trenchant as Doctor Hartert 

 supposed when describing his Halcyon enigma., for the measurements 

 given by Meyer and Wiglesworth^ show complete intergradation 

 between the so-called small and large forms on the Talaut Islands. 

 Furthermore, specimens of Sauropatis chloris forsteni from Cele- 

 bes not infrequently' have a wing measurement of as little as 102 

 mm., occasionally 100 mm., and other races of Sauropatis chloris are 

 still smaller. It seems certain, therefore, that Sauropatis enigma is 

 at most but a subspecies of Sauropatis chloris. It is possible, of 

 course, as Doctor Hartert suggests,* that while Sauropatis chloris 

 enigma is the breeding form on the Talaut Islands, the larger birds 

 are only migratory visitants ; but it seems probable that all the races 

 of Sauropatis chloris are strictly resident. The most reasonable 

 hypothesis to account for this unusually puzzling case appears to be 

 that all the birds on the Talaut Islands belong to Sauropatis chloris 

 enigma., although this would allow an astoundingly great range of 

 individual variation in dimensions. 



i.One specimen, No. 13825, J. H. Fleming ; Karkellang Island, Talaut Islands, autumn, 

 1896. 



2 Ten specimens, measured by Hartert and Meyer and Wiglesworth. 



» Birds Celebes, vol. 1, 1897, p. 294. 



* Novit. Zool., vol. 11, No. 1, Mar. 25, 1904, p. 199. 



