Dr. Hartlaub on Neio Birds from the Feejee Islands. 171 



has figured a species, M. aterrimum (Gmelin), now inhabiting 

 New Guinea, and Cape York on the northern coast of Austraha, 

 in the Supplement to his work on the Birds of Australia. 



]\ly colleague Mr. George R. Gray has kindly called my 

 attention to the Cockatoo figured under the name of " Perro- 

 quet Mascarin^'* by Levaillant in his ' Histoire des Perroquets/ 

 vol. ii. pi. 139 (fol., 1805). 



In the text Levaillant remarks : — " Le Mascarin se trouve k 

 Madagascar et meme, assure-t-on, a I'ile de Bourbon. II est 

 encore tres-rare dans nos cabinets ; du moins n'y ai-je vu que 

 trois de ses individus, dont Fun chcz Mauduit, Fautre chez 

 Pabbe Aubry, et le troisieme au Museum d'histoire naturelle k 

 Paris'' (p. 112). 



So far as can be judged from the coloured plate of the bird, 

 the lower mandible appears to have the same angular shape 

 transversely, at the lower part of its base, as is manifested by 

 the Mauritian gonys (fig. 1) ; but it is inferior in size. The 

 Psittacus pachyrhjnchus of West Africa exemplifies also a 

 similar proportion and form of beak, but is likewise on a smaller 

 scale. 



I think I may venture to add the Psittacus mauritianus to 

 the list of species of birds of the island of the Dodo, and anti- 

 cipate with confidence that materials will one day be obtained 

 enabling the ornithologist to determine the subgeneric section 

 of Psittacidee to which this large Cockatoo may belong. Enough 

 is given, even by the solitary fragment described, to show that 

 it has nearer affinities to Old World forms (African and Austra- 

 lasian) than to the New World Maccaws. 



XVI. — On Five New Species of Birds from the Feejee Islands. 

 By GusTAV Hartlaub, M.D., For. Mem. Z.S., &c. 



1. Rallina pceciloptera. 



Supra obscure rufo-fusca, subtus obscure plumbea; mento et 



gulaalbidis; genis brunneis ; fascia brevi poneoculari plum- 



bea ; subalaribus nigris, albo maculatis ; remigibus ferrugi- 



neis, fasciis angustioribus nigris transversim notatis, primi 



* \_Mascarim(s madagascariensis, Lesson. — Ed.] 



