2. AsTCB. 17 



"Planches Coloriees," in 1823, states is found in Northern 

 Australia, Timor, and the Moluccas, pronounces Gould's A. 

 cruentus, identical with this species, and also JSfisiis australis 

 in the Paris Museum, described by Lesson in 1831 from a 

 specimen brought by Peron from West Australia. Count Salvador! 

 also ranks Astiir sharpii, of Ramsay, from Port Moresby, 

 New Guinea, as a synonym of A. iorquatus* Dr. Sharpe refers 

 the New Guinea examples with the barred under tail-coverts to 

 A. cruentus, of Gould, and considers them distinct from A. 

 torq^uatus^ of Cuvier, as the specimens of the latter in the British 

 Museum collected by Dr. Wallace in East Timor have the under 

 tail-coverts, white. Temminck's plate of the adult of this species 

 also represents the under tail-coverts as greyish-white and un- 

 barred. However closely the Astur from JNew Guinea, described 

 by Dr. Ramsay under the name of A. sharpii, resembles the 

 continental form, I cannot agree in regarding it as the same as 

 A. cruentus, from North-west Australia. I have three adult 

 specimens of A. sharp ii, now before me, including presumedly 

 the type, and will point out where they differ from the latter 

 species. The collar on the hind neck is paler and of a tawny- 

 rufous, the under surface is tawny-red and is more numerously 

 crossed with narrow transverse dull-white bars in the male, and 

 ashy-grey on the breast in the female ; in both sexes also a faint 

 Avash of tawny-red extends all over the mottled greyish-white 

 throat. The under tail-coverts vary considerably ; in the female 

 they are dull-white, conspicuously barred with rufous ; in one of 

 the males the cross-bars are much narrower, and in the other 

 they are reduced to narrow indistinct transverse lines. In a 

 specimen of ^. cruentus, from Derby (North-west Australia), the 

 collar on the hind neck is darker and of a chestnut-red, the under 

 surface is not so rich in colour as the New Guinea examples, 

 being of a pale rufous, conspicuously barred with dull-white, 

 these barrings being bordered above and below with a narrow 

 line of dark-ashy as in A. approximans, there is no faint wash of 

 rufous on the throat, and the under tail-coverts are similarly 

 marked as the breast, with the exception of having the dull-whito 

 cross-bars very much broader. Although the New Guinea and 

 North-west Australian birds can thus be distinguished from each 

 other, and the name of A. sharpii is preoccupied by Oustalet, I do 

 not care to suggest a new name for the Astur from New Guinea, 

 as the variable character of the under tail-coverts tends to prove 

 that Count Salvador! is correct in referring it to A. torquatus. 

 If A. australis from West Australia is identical with A. torquatus 

 from Timor, as stated by Count Salvador!, Lesson's name must 

 rank as a synonym of the latter species, but if it is the same as 



* Salvador!, Aggiunte, Orn. Pap. et Molucc. pt. 1, p. 20 (1889). 



