





ON THREE APPARENTLY UN DESCRIBED BIRDS 

 from HENDERSON or ELIZABETH ISLAND, 

 PAUMOTU GROUP. 



By Alfred J. North, C.M.B.O.U., C.M.Z.S., Ornithologist, 



(Plates viii.-ix.) 



The Trustees have recently received from Mr. A. E. Stephen 

 six birds, in spirits, collected by him on Henderson or Elizabeth 

 Island, an outlier of the Paumotu Group or Low Archipelago, 

 in the South Pacific, in September, 1907. They are referable 

 to three species, which may be described as follows : — 



CALLIPTILUS (?) STEPHEN], Sp. n 



Adult. — General colour above green; lower back, rump, and 

 upper tail-coverts yellowish-green, light green around their tips ; 

 wings green, the inner webs and tips of primaries and the outer 

 web of the first primary blackish-brown ; tail feathers yellow, 

 washed with green, which is more distinct on their outer webs, 

 the basal portion of the inner web of the lateral feathers red ; 

 pileum green, with long and narrow paler green centres to the 

 feathers ; lores, cheeks, throat, fore-neck and breast red ; on 

 each side of the fore-neck is a patch of green which becomes 

 narrower and extends downwards in a line towards the centre 

 of the chest, where some of the feathers have a dull purplish 

 wash ; abdomen and thighs purplish-red tinged with violet, 

 which is more distinct on the latter ; under tail-coverts light 

 green, their basal portion washed with yellow; under wing- 

 coverts green, the inner ones red ; " bill reddish-orange ; legs, feet 

 and iris reddish-orange " (Stephen). Total length, 8 inches ; 

 wing, 4 - 9 ; central tail feathers, 3-5 ; the outermost on either 

 side 2-2; bill, 0-6; tarsus, - 55. 



Type. — In the Australian Museum. 



Remarks. — The present species I have associated with the 

 name of its discoverer, Mr. Alfred Ernest Stephen. Hitherto 

 the genus Calliptilus has been represented by a single species, 

 C. solitarius, inhabiting the Fiji Islands ; but in assigning the 

 present species to that genus, I am by no means certain that I 



