140 Canon Tristram on Birds 



33. EsACUs MAGNiRosTRis^ Geoffr. 

 Hab. Rendova Island. 



34. Rallus pectoralis (pullus ?) . 

 Hab. San Cliristoval. 



35. Sterna bergiIj Liclit. 

 Hab. Rendova Island. 



This may be a good opportunity of summarizing our exist- 

 ing knowledge of the avifauna of the Solomon Islands. 



When Mr. Sclater wrote his first paper on the birds of the 

 Solomon Islands (P. Z. S. 1869^ pp. 118^ seq.) there were known 

 the ten species mentioned in the ' Voyage au Pole Sud/ which 

 must be reduced to eight by the rejection of Mijzomela soli- 

 taria, and Pionias cyaniceps, which is female of P. heterocUtus. 

 Four more species had been described by Mr. Gould from the 

 voyage of the ' Rattlesnake/ and to these seven more were 

 added by Mr. G. R. Gray in his Catalogue of the Birds of the 

 Tropical Islands^ one of which^ ^a/c^/ow cinnamomina, requires 

 confirmation. Mr. Sclater had subsequently (P. Z. S. 1865^ 

 p. 620) added Nasiterna pusio, a new species ; about the 

 habitat of this species, however^ I cannot but suspect some 

 mistake^ as it has since been received repeatedly from Duke- 

 of-York Island, but never from the Solomons ■^. Mr. 

 Sclater, in the paper referred to above, brought up the known 

 species of the Solomon Islands to 34, rejecting three, Halcyon 

 cinnamomina, H. sancta, and ISycticorax manillensis (the two 

 latter of which must now be admitted), and admitting three, 

 Myzomela solitaria, Todiramphus chloris, and Nasiterna pusio 

 (which I would reject). 



In 1870 Mr. G. R. Gray described (Ann. & Mag. N. H. 

 ser. 4, vol. v. p. 328) Ptilopus solomonensis, Carpophaga 

 bi'enchleyi, and three others. 



In Brenchley^s ' Cruise of the Cura9oa,' a.d. 1873, the same 

 author corrected Philemon vulturinus to P. sclateri, sp. nov. 



In 1876 Mr. R. B. Sharpe described (P. Z. S. p. 673) Ninox 



[* I quite agree with Canon Tristram tliat the supposed habitat of ^a- 

 siterna 2nmo, which I gave on the authority of the late Mr. Kreff t, is, in 

 all probability, wrong. — P. L. S.] 



