the Avifauna of New Caledoniu. 261 



60. Ptilopus greyi, G. R. Gray. 



This little Dove is getting very scarce in New Caledonia 

 proper ; it occurs (several specimens) in the Lifu collection, 

 and_, we are told, is not uncommon in the Isle of Pines. We 

 have it abundantly from the New Hebrides; and it is appa- 

 rently the most widely distributed of all the Ptilopi. 



We might here mention that, having lately received Cas- 

 sin's 'Ornithology of the U.S. ExjjI. Exped." with the Atlas 

 of plates, we are convinced that, misled by Drs. Finsch and 

 Hartlaub's 'Ornithologie,^ we have assigned wrong habitats to 

 P. fasciatus, Peale, and P. apicalis. The former is evidently 

 the bird figured in the folio A.tlas, pi. 31, and described from 

 Samoa by Peale, whose not very exhaustive description is 

 quoted entii'C. 



A glimpse at the plate is quite sufficient to show the bird 

 indicated. The patch of colour on the belly, well described 

 as " purple,^' the dark orange-yellow of the patch following 

 it, and of the under tail-coverts, and, above all, the bright yel- 

 low terminations of the tail-feathers, are the chief charac- 

 teristics of the Samoan bird, and of it alone out of the Pti- 

 lopi found in the three groups, Navigators^, Friendly, and 

 Fiji Islands ; and whatever names the others must bear, the 

 Samoan bird is clearly entitled to that of P. fasciatus, Peale. 

 Each of the three groups of islands named possesses but one 

 species of these green and grey (cinereous) Doves ; and in 

 determining a species special attention should be given to the 

 locality which furnished the typical specimen from which the 

 original description was taken. 



[On comparing a series from the different groups, and 

 referring to the original descriptions, it seems clear that P. 

 apicalis, Bp., must sink to a synonym of P. porj)hyraceus. 

 Were it not for the words '^ rectricibus apice flavis,^^ the 

 diagnosis would suit P. fasciatus almost as well. The Samoan 

 species is distinguishable at a glance ; but the Ptilinopi of 

 Tonga and Fiji appear to me barely, if at all, separable, 

 though in Fijian specimens the green of the neck and 

 shoulders seems less suffused with grey than in those from 

 Tonga.— H. B. T.] 



