178 PROCEEDINUi^ Ol THE NATIOSAL MUiSELM. vol.54. 



No birds have heretofore been reported from Solombo Besar, and 

 Doctor Abbott's brief stay probably has not nearly exhausted its 

 ornithological possibilities. Judging from the admittedly inadequate 

 basis offered by the few species of birds catalogued below, this island 

 appears to be faunally more closely related to Java and Timor than 

 to Borneo. 



Family FALCONIDAE. 



CERCHNEIS MOLUCCENSIS MICROBALIA, new subspecies. 



Suhspecijic characters. — Similar to Cerchneis moluccensis occlden- 

 talis, from Celebes, but with the blackish brown spots and bars of 

 back, scapulars, and upper surface of wings decidedly smaller; 

 blackish streaks on pileum somewhat narrower; and blackish mark- 

 ings of lower surface smaller. 



Description. — Type, adult male, No. 181449, U.S.N.M.; Solombo 

 Besar Island, Java Sea, March 12, 1*907; Dr. W. L. Abbott. Upper 

 surface auburn, rather lighter on rump and pileum, the latter nar- 

 rowly streaked with black, the cervix, back, and rump with sub- 

 triangular spots or bars of black, these most numerous on cervix, 

 largest on the back and smallest on the rump; upper tail-coverts 

 neutral gray, the tips more or less washed with auburn; tail light 

 neutral gray above, with a broad band of black near its end, and a 

 rather wide tip of partly grayish, partly whitish, light-pinkish cin- 

 namon; tail below similar,' but paler; wing-quills fuscous black, the 

 outer webs, excepting the outermost two primaries, conspicuously 

 spotted basally with auburn, the inner webs barred with the same 

 color, which, on the inner edge of the feathers, passes into white, 

 the amount of auburn decreasing toward the outer quills until on 

 the outermost the bars are nearly all white; primary coverts with 

 alternating broad bars of fuscous black and auburn; remaining 

 wing-coverts auburn, with subtriangular spots or narrow bars of 

 black; subocular region pale grayish, finely streaked with black; 

 lower parts cinnamon, rather duller anteriorly, the jugulum and 

 sides of throat heavily streaked with fuscous black, the breast and 

 upper abdomen thickly strewn with roundish or subtriangular spots 

 of fuscous black, the thighs and crissum immaculate; lower wing- 

 coverts white, barred, spotted, and streaked, but rather sparingly, 

 with black and neutral gray; axillars \viiite, but much tinged with 

 auburn and heavily barred with fuscous black and neutral gray; 

 "feet yellow." Total length,^ 338 mm.; whig, 230; tail, 152; ex- 

 posed culmen, 19.5; culmen from cere, 15; tarsus, 42.5; middle toe 

 without claw, 29.5. 



This bird represents an apparently well-characterized race, with 

 which the birds from Flores and Timorlaut, mentioned by Meyer 



1 Measured in the flesh by the collector. 



