228 Canon Tristram — Stray Ornitholof/ical Notes. 



finally set at rest. I forwarded the specimen to Washington , 

 and Mr, Ridgway kindly writes to inform me that it proves 

 to be P. holboelli in breeding-plumage. So far as I can 

 ascertain, this species is, as yet, unknown in our museums 

 on this side of the Atlantic, which must be my excuse for 

 mistaking its identity. 



By a careless slip of the pen I mentioned in the last 

 number of 'The Ibis' (above, p. 23), Alauda hrachydactyla 

 as occurring in Gran Canaria. I should have written Alauda 

 {Calandrella) minor, Cab., which is the Canarian species. I 

 have just heard from Mr. Meade-Waldo, who is in Tenerife, 

 that he finds Calandrella minor on the high ground in that 

 island also, and that it breeds at Laguna. 



In going over some skins from the Pacific islands which 

 I had received several years ago for examination at my 

 leisure, and which had been mislaid and forgotten, I find a 

 Myzomela sent me by Lieut. G. E. Richards, K.N., from 

 St. Aiguans, Louisiade Archipelago, which appears to me to 

 be undescribed. In coloration it most nearly resembles M. 

 lifuensis, Layard, but is one third larger, equalling, in fact, 

 in size the largest species of the family ; and while in M. li- 

 fuensis there is a broad black collar intervening between the 

 scarlet head and the scarlet down the centre of the back, in 

 the Louisiade bird the scarlet is uninterrupted, and the 

 scarlet on the throat does not descend so far towards the 

 breast and is very sharply defined. I propose for this species 

 the name 



Myzomela rubro-cucullata, sp. nov. 

 (J capite, dorso et uropygio coccineis; alis, cauda et corpore 

 subtus toto cum macula anteoculari intense nee fuli- 

 ginose nigris; remigum margine interna arete albida ; 

 rostro joedibusque nigris. 

 Hab. St. Aignans, Louisiade Archipelago. 

 I subjoin the measurements of the two species : — 

 M. rubro-cucullata : Long. tot. 5*15, alae 2*85, caud. 225, 

 tars. 0'9, culmiu. 075. 



M. lifuensis : Long. tot. 4-2, alae 2-3, caud. I'S, tars. 0*7, 

 culmin. 0'65. 



