8. PTILOPUS. 105 



a. Ail. sk. fllervey or Cook's Islands.] Zool. Soc. [P.]. 



(Type of P. chalcurus *. ) 



27. Ptilopus smithsonianus. 



Ptilinopus coralensis, part., Cass. U.S. JExpL Exp. 2nd ed. p. 272 



(1848). 



(Supposed type of P. coralensis.) Head and neck dull greenish, 

 changing into olive brouze-green on the upper parts and into pale 

 olive-green on the breast ; crown dull purple-violet, forehead 

 greenish grey ; quills and greater wing-coverts bronze-green, with 

 a coppery tinge, and edged with yellowish ; under surface of the 

 wings dull grey; first primary very narrow at the tip; middle of 

 the abdomen, vent, and under tail-coverts pale yellow ; tail above 

 bronze-green with a coppery tinge, and with an apical greyish band 

 tinged with green on the edges of the outer webs ; there is an in- 

 distinct subapical dark band, and the inner webs are grey ; under 

 surface of the tail pale grey, with a darker subapical band and a 

 lighter apical one. Total length about 8-5 inches, wing 5 - 5, 

 tail 3-8, bill 0-5, tarsus 0-8. 



Hub. Some Island of the Paumotu Group t- 



28. Ptilopus purpuratus. 



Purple-crowned Pigeon, Lath. Gen. Syn. ii. 2, p. G26, n. 15 (1783) 



(Otaheiti). 

 Columba purpurata, Gm. S. X. i. 2, p. 784, n. 64 (1788) (ex Latham) ; 



Lath. bid. Orn. ii. p. 508, n. 17 (1790) ; Bcchst. Lath. Ueben. ii. 



p. 607 (1794), iv. p. 379 (1811) ; Temm. Hist. Piy. et Gallin. i. 



p. 280 (part.) (1813). 

 Columba kurukuru, Bonn. JEnc. MSth. (pr<5m. <?d.) p. 240 (part.) 



(1790). 

 Columba kurukuru, var. taitensis, Less. Voy. Coq. i. p. 297 (1826). 

 Columba porphvracea (part.), Foist. MS. (var. ex Otaheite); Tf'ayl. 



las, 1829, p. 743. 



* I have very little doubt that the bird described as P. chalcurus is the same 

 ns P. coralensis, Peale ; the specimen mentioned above agrees very well with the 

 figure of the latter in the United States Exploring Expedition (/. c), only in 

 that the purple on the crown does not extend to the bind part of the forehead. 

 If my surmise is right, the locality assigned to the bird in the British Museum 

 must be wrong. Mr. 'Wiglesworth (' Ibis,' I. c.) rightly notices that " it is 

 strange that Garrett, who spent six months collecting in Karotonga, Atiu. and 

 Aitutaki, never obtained examples of this species." It would seem less strange 

 if the locality assigned to the type of P. chalcurus were wrong. 



t Thanks to the authorities of the .Smithsonian Institution, I have been able 

 to examine the bird which is considered to be the type of P. lis, Peale, 



and which is so very different from Peale's plate tint 1 cannot help thinking 

 that the latter (which was drawn by Peale himself) was taken from another bird 

 resembling the type of /'. chalcurus, and that the bird preserved as the type of 

 P.cora/eu.'i* belongs to a different species. Ossein supposed that it might be an 

 immature specimen ; but I think that this surmise is not correct, as the bird his 

 the first primary much attenuated at the tip, more so even than in the type of 

 P. chalcurus, which I take to be the same as P. corakmis. 



