TYPE SPECIMENS OF BIRDS 197 



Dacelo vitiensis Peale 



U.S. Exploring Expedition 8 (Mamra. and Orn.) : 156, "pi. xliv," 1848. 

 =Halcyon chloris vitiensis (Peale) . See Peters, Checklist of birds of 



the world 5: 212, 1945, 

 14612=14602? Subadult (sex not indicated). "Tongataboo?"=Fiji 

 Islands? Original number 483. U.S. Exploring Expedition (1838- 

 1842). 

 Cassin (U.S. Exploring Expedition 8:209, 1858) stated that he had 

 "seven specimens belonging to the collection made by the Expedition, and 

 collected in the Feejee and Tonga Islands." Since vitiensis is now restricted 

 to certain of the Fijis, while sacra is the race of the Tongas, it is important 

 to know how many of tlie seven were actually Fijian birds. 



The museum register has seven entries for this form, of which three 

 (Nos. 14575, 14601, and 14603) are said to come from the Fijis, and two 

 (Nos. 14570 and 14612) from "Tongataboo?," while two (Nos. 14599 and 

 14602) are without indication of provenience. 



No. 14601 was sent to the Chicago Academy of Sciences in 1864, and No. 

 14599 was sent to the same place in 1870 ; both were destroyed by the Great 

 Fire. A specimen in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 

 (where it is No. 21430) is asserted by Stone definitely to have come from 

 Tongatabu, and therefore cannot be a type of vitiensis at all. 



In the U.S. National Museum there remain three specimens of interest in 

 this connection. No. 14570, an adult male from "Tongataboo?," and No. 

 14575, an unsexed adult from "Viti," both agree better with modern examples 

 of sacra than with similar ones of vitiensis, and therefore must be removed 

 from consideration. 



No. "14612," despite the fact that it is labeled as from "Tongataboo?," 

 seems to represent true vitiensis. Richmond long ago in MS. suggested that 

 the wrong number had been transcribed on the bottom of the stand at 

 mounting, or that, at dismounting, the bird had acquired the wrong label. 

 This surmise is strengthened by the probability that the one specimen labeled 

 as from "Viti" came instead from the Tongas. 

 Sauropatis sacra rabulala Wetmore 



in Townsend and Wetmore, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. 63: 197, August 

 1919. 

 =Halcyon chloris sacra (Gmelin). See Mayr, Amer. Mus. Nov. 1152:1, 



1941. 

 212343. Adult male. Eua Island (lat. 21°20'30'' S., long. 175°02' W.), 

 Tonga Islands, Oceania. November 28, 1899. Collected by Charles 

 H. Townsend. Received from the U.S. Fish Commission. 

 Sauropatis sacra celada Wetmore 



in Townsend and Wetmore, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. 63 : 198, August 

 1919. 



