596 



PERTSTERID.T:. 



feathers on the sides of the breast margined with purple ; middle of 

 the abdomen vinous brown, the sides, the vent, and under tail- 

 coverts chocolate-brown ; quills brown ; under wing-coverts and 

 basal part of the inner webs of the quills cinnamon ; tail brown, 

 with the base of the lateral feathers dark vinous grey : " bill black ; 

 iris red-brown ; legs deep crimson " {Layard). Total length about 

 11 inches, wing 6 - 2, tail 3'8, bill 0*7, tarsus P35. 



Female. Head, neck, and breast dull cinnamon, brighter or 

 deeper on the head ; rest of the upper parts glossy brown-olive ; 

 abdomen and iinder tail-coverts dull brown, the longest of the 

 latter with a russet tinge ; quills brown ; under wing-coverts 

 partly cinnamon ; a cinnamon tinge also on the inner webs of the 

 quills ; tail russet-brown, the lateral feathers more rufescent, almost 

 cinnamon, and with a subapical brown band. Total length about 

 10 inches, wing 5-6, tail 3-8, bill 0-7, tarsus 1-25. 



Hub. Fiji and Tonga Islands. 



The type of Ph. stairi is a bird which lived in the Zoological 

 Society's gardens. It is not quite certain from which of the three 

 island-groups of Central Polynesia (Samoa, Fiji, or Tonga) it 

 came : it appears to me more like a Fiji bird than a Samoan one, as 

 it has the occiput dusky, almost slaty, with a greenish tinge ; but it 

 may, after all, have come from the Tonga Islands. The birds of 

 the latter group ought to be compared with those from Samoa 

 and those from the Fiji Islands : Dr. Finsch thinks they may prove 

 to be specifically distinct from both. 



In the present circumstances I shall unite the Tonga with the 

 Fiji bird, and not the Tonga with the Samoan, as Wiglesworth has 

 done. 



a. 3 ad. st. [Samoa.] Zoological Soc. Coll. 



(Type of species.) 



b. 3 ad. sk. [Samoa.] Rev. J. B. Stair [P.]. 



c. d, e. 3 $ ad. Ovalau, Fiji, Feb., Nov., Dec. Tweeddale Coll. 

 sk. (E. L. Layard). 



f-k. 3 $ ad- sk. Wakaia, Fiji, May, Sept., Nov. Tweeddale Coll. 



(E. L. Layard). 

 I, 7)i. 3 ad. sk. Vanua Levu, Fiji, May (E. L. Tweeddale Coll. 



Layard). 

 n. 3 ad. sk. N'Gila, Taviuni, Fiji, Aug. Tweeddale Coll. 



(E. L. Layard). 

 o. 3 ad. sk. Taviuni, Fiji. W. A. Bailward, Esq. 



[P.]. 

 p. Juv. sk. Taviuni, Fiji (Liardet). Salvin-Godman Coll. 



q. 2 ad. sk. N'Dreketti, Fiji (E. L. Tweeddale Coll. 



Layard). 



14. Phlogcenas samoensis. 



Phlegcenas stairi, Finsch $ Hartl. Orn. Centralpol. p. 147 (part., 

 Samoa) (1867); WJiitmee, Lbis, 1875,? p. 445 (Samoa); Tristr. 

 Cat. Coll. B. p. 41 (Samoa) (1889) ; Wiglesxc. Aves Polyn. p. 56, 

 n. 289 (part., Samoa) (1891). 



