Ornitholoyists' Club. ^77 



Mr. Howard Saunders made some remarks upon the 

 Skimmers {Rhi/nchopince), with special reference to the 

 species found in America. After studying the specimens 

 in the collection of the Natural History Museum, he found 

 three forms which he considered to be specifically distinct. 

 Of these, Rhynchops nigra has a nearly white tail, a broad 

 pure white alar band, conspicuously white parapteral feathers, 

 and white under wing-coverts ; it inhabits the temperate 

 and tropical east coast of North America. R. melanura has 

 dark brown rectrices, with very narrow pale borders to the 

 outer webs, a slight alar baud of dull Avhite, shows no white 

 on the parapteral feathers, and has smoke-coloured under 

 wing-coverts ; it inhabits the great rivers of South America 

 which drain from the Andes (ascending to the cataracts), 

 and also the Pacific coasts of Chile, Peru, and Ecuador. On 

 the coast of South Brazil and Argentina, ascending the 

 Parana and Paraguay to their head-waters, is found a 

 species which chiefly resembles the northern R. nigra, but 

 differs from it in having a smaller alar band, and the rec- 

 trices chiefly brown, with broad white edges to the outer 

 webs. This he proposed to call 



Rhynchops intercedens, sp. n. 

 ^ . Similis R. nigra, sed fascia alari alba angustiore, et rec- 

 tricibus prsecipue brunneis, late albo marginatis distin- 

 guenda. Long. tot. 18 poll., alse 15'25. 



The Hon. Walter Rothschild sent for inspection a new 

 species of Bower-bird, which he characterized as follows : — 



^LURCEDUS JOBIENSIS, Sp. UOV. 



This species is nearest to ^. melanocephalus, Ramsay, from 

 British New Guinea, but shows sufficient differences to 

 justify its separation. The head is black, uniformly spotted 

 with huffish yellow % and does not show the black band on 

 the sides of the occiput, so conspicuous in ^. melanocephalus . 

 Upper neck and back brownish buff, with black margins. 

 Ear-coverts consisting of the large patch of bristly feathers 

 found in its three nearest allies, but this patch passes straight 

 into the black of the throat, without any marked area of 



