BIRDS FROM NIAS. 161 



NOTE XXI. 

 ON A COLLECTION OF BIRDS FROM NIAS 



BT 



Dr. J. BÜTTIKOFER. 



The island of Nias , the largest of the long series of 

 islands flanking the west coast of Sumatra, and situated at 

 a distance of about 70 miles from the north-west coast of 

 the latter, has, of lute, more than once been the subject 

 of zoological investigations. 



The first intelligence about the avifauna of Nias is due 

 to a visit, paid to that island by Baron von Rosen- 

 berg, in 1854. The results of his investigations are pub- 

 lished in the Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genoot- 

 schap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, Vol. XXX (1863) 

 under the title : Verslag omtrent het eiland Nias 

 en deszelfs bewoners, door J. T. Nieuwenhuisen 

 en H. C. B. von Rosenberg. This report contains, on 

 pp. 19 and 20, a list of 56 species of birds without any 

 further details. Several of these names I was not able to 

 identify with any of the known Malaiasian species, and 

 of others the identification I ventured in the following list 

 is subject to some doubts. 



In an enumeration of the birds of Nias, published in 

 his work: Der Malayische Archipel (1878), p. 219, 

 von Rosenberg made use of the above mentioned list, pu- 

 blished in company with Nieuwenhuisen , but some of the 

 names have been altered or suppressed. This list contains 

 about 60 species. As the species mentioned in the two 



Notes from the Leyden JMuseura, Vol. XVUI. 



11 



