Ornithologists' Club. 181 



" P . palliceps is certainly very closely allied to P. celebensis, 

 and the distinctness of F. propinqua from P. erythrogastra is 

 very doubtful.^' 



Mr. Rothschild also sent for exhibition a specimen of au 

 Oyster-catcher^ which he proposed to call : — 



" H.EMATOPUS REISCHEKI, Sp. n. 



" ^ ad. Differs from H. longirostris Vieill. and H.finschi 

 Martens^ at first sight^ in having the lower back and rump 

 black and not white, and the upper tail-coverts being mixed 

 black and white, not white. The bill is much louger than in 

 a series of twenty-three specimens of H. longirostris in the 

 Tring Museum^ and appears stouter than in New Zealand 

 specimens. 



'' Culmen 102 mm., wing 270, tarsus 60. 



" H. longirostris, ^ ad. Culmen 75-85 mm., wing 245-255, 

 tarsus 55. 



" The type was shot in June 1885 at Kaiparu, New Zealand, 

 by A. Reischek. 



"H.fiyiscM of Martens (Orn.Monatsb. 1897, p. 190) appears 

 from the description to agree with two birds collected by 

 Baron von Hiigel at Freshwater Creek, Canterbury, Nevv 

 Zealand, and another from Kaipoi, Canterbury. These birds, 

 however, vary among themselves in the amount of white on 

 the quills, which is the distinction given by Herr Martens ; 

 and this variation in the amount of white leads me to con- 

 sider that his H. finschi and the three birds from Baron vou 

 Hiigel are only aberrations of iiT. longirostris." 



Mr. Ernst Hartert recorded the occurrence of a specimen 

 of Grallina picata on the little island of Koer in the Key 

 group. 



Mr. Hartert also exhibited the types of three new birds 

 collected near Gambaga, Gold Coast Colony, which he 

 named and characterized as follows : — 



COSSYPHA GIFFARDI, Sp. U. 



Similar to C. alhicapilla from Senegambia, but differing in 



