Dec, 1907-1 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 135 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF CHALCO- 

 PHAPS FROM NORTH-WESTERN AUSTRALIA.* 



By Alfred J. North, C.M.Z.S., &c., Ornithologist Australian 



Museum, Sydney. 

 {Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, \^th Nov., 1907.) 

 Mr. Edwin Ashby, of Blackwood, South Australia, has kindly 

 sent me for examination some bird skins collected recently by 

 Mr. C. E. May while at Port Keats, North-Western Australia. 

 Among them are three adult specimens of a Chalcophaps, which 

 may be distinguished from the Northern and Eastern Australian 

 form as follows : — 



Chalcophaps occidentalis, sp. nov. 



Adult Male. — Head, sides of neck, hind-neck, and upper back 

 lilac-mauve, slightly darker on the occiput ; most of the lesser wing 

 coverts white, forming a conspicuous shoulder-patch ; remainder 

 of the upper wing coverts, secondaries, scapulars, and centre of 

 back rich bronze-green, the feathers oti the upper portion of the 

 latter margined with lilac-mauve ; primaries brown, their inner 

 webs for two-thirds of their length and the basal portion of the 

 outer web of all except the three outermost chestnut-rufous ; 

 lower back dull blackish crossed with a light grey band, and 

 followed by a slight darker and more indistinct band ; rump and 

 upper tail coverts grey with narrow blackish margins to most of 

 tiie feathers and becoming broader on the longest upper tail 

 coverts ; two centre tail feathers brown, the remainder blackish, 

 except the three outer ones which are grey crossed with a blackish 

 subterminal band ; chin, throat, fore-neck, breast, and abdomen a 

 delicate lilac-mauve, the feathers on the centre of the chin and 

 upper throat with small pale buffy bases forming an indistinct 

 central streak ; the feathers on the abdomen with a greyish shade 

 and those on the lower flanks washed with brown around their 

 tips ; basal under tail coverts grey, the remainder blackish. 

 Total length J0.5 inches, wing 6.2, tail 3.8, bill 0.7, tarsus i. 



Adult Female. — Differs from the male in being duller in 

 plumage except on the wings, in having only an irregular-shaped 

 dull white bar on the lesser wing coverts, a more pronounced grey 

 bar below the lower back, and the upper tail coverts dull chocolate- 

 brown, but with similar blackish margins ; tail feathers chocolate- 

 brown all but the central pair, with a blackish terminal band, the 

 outermost one on either side grey, with a black subterminal band. 

 Wing 6.2 inches. 



Habitat. — North-Western Australia. 



Remarks. — Another adult male has the bronze colour on the 



* Contributions from the Australian Museum, by permission of the Trustees. 



