32 Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant on the Genus Platalea. 



To my enthusiastic, keen, and accurate companion in the 

 latter islands, Mr. Meade- Waldo, for whom I confidently 

 predict a very high place among our rising field-naturalists, 

 I leave the task of describing the researches, in which he 

 bore the chief part, in the latter islands. 



III. — On the Genus Platalea, ivith a Description of a new 

 Species from New Guinea. By W. R. Ogilvie-Grant. 

 (Plate I.) 

 The head and legs of a Spoonbill recently killed at Port 

 Moresby, S.E. New Guinea, were forwarded by Mr. H. 

 Romilly to Lord Walsingham, by whom these interesting 

 remains were presented to the Natural History Museum. 

 The rest of the body had unfortunately been cut up for 

 eating by the natives before the bird was observed by Mr. 

 Romilly ; but the whole plumage is said to have been 

 entirely white, like the head, and to have belonged to a bird 

 hitherto unknown in New Guinea. 



That no Spoonbill has ever been recorded from Papua is 

 certain, and at the first glance I believed these remains to 

 belong to the Australian black-faced species, P. melano- 

 rhyncha, Reich. (P. regia, Gould), which it seemed probable 

 might have strayed northwards beyond its usual range ; but 

 after a very careful comparison with specimens of the Aus- 

 tralian bird of the same age I am convinced that the Spoon- 

 bill of New Guinea belongs to quite a distinct species, some- 

 what intermediate between P. melanorhyncha and P. minor, 

 Temm. & Schh, from Japan and Formosa. 



Before venturing to describe a new species on such frag- 

 mentary evidence, more especially as the species of this 

 group are not yet well understood, chiefly owing to the 

 scarcity of material in museums and to the difficulty of procur- 

 ing specimens, I have made a detailed examination of all the 

 available material both in the Natural History Museum and 

 elsewhere, and have attempted to clearly establish the distin- 

 guishing characters of the different species. I trust the 

 results may be of some value to those who are interested in 



