196 BIRDS FROM FLO RES , SUMBA AND ROTTF. 



13. Munia propinqua (Sliarpe). 



Urolonchn propinqua Sharpe , Cat. Birds Br. Mus. Vol. XIII, p. 368. 



An adult bird from Sika (Flores). Dr. Sharpe, in his 

 above cited Catalogue, remarks that the specimens from 

 Flores differ from the widely spread M. molucca by the 

 want of the black barrings on the sides of the breast, 

 which parts thus form an indistinct white collar, to which 

 I may add that it is only the anterior part of the sides 

 of breast which is left entirely white. The Celebes birds 

 are said to be intermediate, i. e. less barred than those 

 from the Moluccas, but more than the Flores birds, and 

 are mentioned under the head of M. propinqua. The pre- 

 sent specimen , as well as a Flores specimen in the Mu- 

 seum collection, really show the -characteristics pointed 

 to by Dr. Sharpe , characters still more pronounced in our 

 two adult specimens from Sumbawa and another from 

 Timor. All our eight adult Celebes specimens (only North 

 Celebes) and those from Sula seem to me to stand nearer the 

 Moluccan than the Flores and Timor birds , some specimens 

 from Amboina and another from Cerani being as white 

 on the sides of chest as those from Celebes , while none 

 of the latter is as white as the Flores birds. It may be 

 that this is not the case with birds from South Celebes , 

 but all our specimens from the North will certainly be 

 better enlisted with M. molucca. 



B. BlEDS FROM THE ISLAND OF SuMBA OR SaNDELWOOD. 



As far as I am aware , Dr. ten Kate is the first who 

 sent zoological collections from this in a certain sense 

 out-of-the-way island. The 32 species of Sumba birds we 

 received , prove the identity of the ornis of Sumba with 

 that of Flores. 



1. Astur torquatus (Temm.). 

 Nisus torquatus Schl. Mns. P.-B. , Revue Accip. p. 91. 

 An adult bird of small size , probably a male , with a 

 very broad rufous collar on the hind neck. 



Notes from the Leyden Museum, "Vol. XIV. 



