Letters from the Pacific. Ill 



is to be found on Ruck, and even on the Pelews, situated at 

 a distance of 1400 miles. Aj^jain, why are the Ptilopus and 

 Phtegcenas of Ponape and the Ruck group the same, whereas 

 Kushai has a peculiar species of Ptilopus ? Such facts as 

 these furnish abundant food for thought upon the subject of 

 geographical distribution, and show that, although it may be 

 easy to make general rules, exceptions occur which are very 

 difficult to explain satisfactorily. 



Among the land-birds, Myzomela rubratra and Calornis 

 pacificus are, in Ponape as in Kushai, the most common, and 

 to be seen everywhere. The latter seemed larger to me than 

 those from Kushai ; but I had not then the opportunity of 

 making a close examination. A later comparison, however, 

 convinced me of the identity of the Calornis of Ponape and 

 Kushai, as well as that of Ruck and the Pelews. The habits 

 and manners of both these species are just the same as on 

 Kushai. The Collocalia also occurs, and, according to the 

 investigations of Mr. Kubary, breeds in the inaccessible holes 

 of the big Sentinel rock of Tokoiti. Still more plentiful, or 

 rather more easily observable, is Trichoglossus rubiginosus, 

 discovered forty years ago by the ' Danaide ' expedition, and 

 the habitat of which was mistaken by so many eminent 

 ornithologists until the Austrian naturalists on board the 

 ' Novara,' eighteen years later, settled the doubt. Since I 

 have myself become acquainted with this singular Parrakeet, 

 I do not wonder that the members of the ' Novara ' expe- 

 dition collected eight specimens in as many hours ; for this 

 bird was the first that attracted my attention when landing on 

 the island, and in less than half an hour I killed four speci- 

 mens myself. This Parrakeet makes itself known by its con- 

 tinual noise, uttered both on the wing and when resting in 

 the foliage of high trees. It is not at all a shy bird, approach- 

 ing fearlessly the neighbourhood of houses and plundering 

 the fruit-trees, notwithstanding all the means taken to destroy 

 them. They keep mostly in pairs, or in small companies of 

 from three to five ; and often, when I had shot one of a flock, 

 the remainder would come down to their crying comrade and 

 share the same fate. Zosterops ponapensis, in contrast with 



