collected or observed in the Neiv Hebrides. 271 



I identify this bird with that described by the late INIr. G. 

 R. Gray in the ^Cruise of the Cura9oa;' but the figure is 

 coloured much too green on the back. The figure of Z. sia- 

 mensis (Ibis, 1876, p. 350, pi. x.) much more nearly resembles 

 our bird. — E. L. L. 



13 & 14. Merula — — ? 



Two " Blackbirds " were seen : — a very dark one on Am- 

 brym, which I thought resembled the Samoan bird, T. vani- 

 korensis ; and a brown one on St. Bartholomew, which more 

 resembled in colour those I shot on Vanua Levu {M. tempesti, 

 Layard). They had the usual " Blackbird ^^ call and habits. 

 — L. L. 



15. Myiagra melanura, G. E. Gray. 



This Broad-billed Flycatcher was distributed through all 

 the islands visited. Their habits resembled those of the New- 

 Caledonia birds. I found them more about the bush skirting 

 the seashore than in the inland forest. Iris dark brown ; bill 

 ashy blue ; legs and feet black. — L. L. 



Among the specimens brought the Erromango bird has a 

 conspicuously smaller bill, but is otherwise not distinguishable. 

 The bill of the New- Caledonian bird, M. viridinitens, G. R. 

 Gray, is just intermediate between the twoj but that species 

 can at once be separated from them by the white feathers in 

 the tail, which in M. melanura are wanting. Canon Tristram 

 {loc. cit.) alludes to " the rich chestnut ^' of the female. He 

 has been led into error here by his correspondents. L. L. 

 brought a female with the same black- coloured chest as the 

 male ; and the sexes of our allied M. viridinitens, G. R. Gray, 

 are identical. The chestnut-chested bird is distinct; what 

 it is I do not know, as L. L. only saw it. It is probably 

 allied to, if not identical with, M. caledonica, G. R. Gray, in 

 Avhich both sexes, as in the Samoan M. albiventris, are chest- 

 nut; or it may be M. vanicorensis, Q. et G. — E. L. L. 



[_Note. — I have before me specimens of both the black- and 

 the chestnut-breasted Flycatcher from Samoa, Fiji, New Cale- 

 donia, and New Hebrides. I have very possibly been led into 

 error by my correspondents respecting the New-Hebrides 



