NOTES ON SPECIES OF THE AUSTRALIAN GENUS PARDALOTUS. 



In his " Catalogue of the Birds iu the British Museum," vol. x (1885), 

 p. 54, Mr. E. Bowdler Sharpe distinguishes three different forms of 

 Fardaloti having the "head streaked with white on hinder crown and 

 occiput," as follows: 



a'. All the primaries edgedwith white, forming a large wiug-patch; tips of primary- 

 coverts scarlet ornatus. 



v. Third and fourth primaries edged with white ; tips of primary-coverts scarlet, or 

 orange, or yellow assimilis. 



c'. Third primary only edged with white; tips of ijrimary-coverts always yellow 



affiiiis. 



The first and third of these he treats of as good species, but assimilis 

 he regards as "subsp. a" of P. ornatus (p. 56). 



In looking over the collection iu the National Museum, 1 find that it 

 possesses three specimens of true P. ornatus Temm. (or P. striatus auc- 

 torum plurimorum nee Gmel.); three typical specimens of P. affinis 

 Gould {=P. striatus Gmel. nee auct.*); and besides, seven specimens 

 which are identical with P. a^nis, with the exception that they have the 

 tips of the i)rimary coverts colored red and not yellozv; that is, they have 

 the outer edge of only ilie third primary white, plus a red wing spot. 

 These I take to be typical P. assimilis of Ramsay, for the reason that 

 this author gives no other character by which to distinguish assimilis 

 from affinis than the color of the wing spot.t 1 may also mention that 

 a specimen from New South Wales ( U. S. Nat Mus., No. 88285), which the 

 National Museum in 1882 received from the Linnean Society of that 

 province is marked ^^Pardalotus assimilis $ ." The specimens under 

 consideration consequently differ somewhat from Mr. Sharpe's six speci- 



* Mr. Sharpe has already pointed out the fact that P. striatuaGM. is not ornatus Tkmm,, 

 and he has also hinted at the probability of the former beinj; Gould's affinis. La- 

 tham iu his description mentioned the black head with the white stripes, the yellow 

 eupraloral spot and the yellow tips to the outer wing-coverts, " making an oblique mark 

 near the outer edge of the wing." If, therefore, his bird is a Pardalotiis at all, its char- 

 acters fit very well the species in question. Latham does not give any locality, and 

 Gmelin's assertion of its habitat being South America is, therefore, evidently an in- 

 vention of his. 



t His definition is as follows (Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales, II, 1878, p. 180, foot- 

 note) : " Tips of spurious wings always orange-red never yellow as in P. affinis." 

 Gould also uses the term "spurious wing," both, of course, meaning the primary- 

 coverts. 



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