June 5, 1879] 



NATURE 



125 



At the Zoological Gardens I have seen a small monkey 

 hold out to me a nut to crack which was too hard for him 

 to crack himself, and the conflict of emotions with which 

 he held out, again withdrew, and eventually surrendered 

 his treasure was positively painful to witness. Of course 

 I cracked the nut, and Prof. Huxley tells me that he once 

 performed a similar act of charity under precisely similar 

 circumstances. Now the process of " mental reflection," 

 which led to this surrender by the monkey of his valued 

 property must have been both vivid and complex. 



Although I have never myself observed an instance, I 

 can have no doubt from the concurrent and independent 

 testimony which I have received that dogs are sometimes 

 capable of reasoning thus : Is my master out or not .' 

 When he goes out he always takes his great-coat with 

 him ; therefore I will go and see whether or not his great- 

 coat is hanging in its accustomed place. 



Lastly, I have just received a letter from the Vicar of 

 Cam, which relates an instance of mental reflection on 

 the part of a poodle dog that has the merit of admitting 

 neither of mal-observation nor unconscious exaggeration. 

 The vicar's friend — a Canon whose name I have at present 

 no express permission to publish— went to visit a cousin, 

 who owned the poodle dog. I will conclude by telling the 

 rest of the story in my correspondent's own words : " The 

 poodle, whose name is Mori, went into the dining-room 

 with them, and kept quietly under the table till the end 

 of lunch, when he begged for a little food, and he was 

 given a small shred of beef. They returned to the 

 drawing-room, while the servant cleared away, and the 

 beef was taken into the larder. The dog did not think he 

 had had his fair share. . . . Now, he had been taught to 

 stand on his hind legs, put his paw on a lady s waist, and 

 hand her into the dining-room. He adopted the same 

 tactics with my friend the Canon, . . . but the sagacious 

 dog, instead of steering for the dining-room, led him in 

 the direction of the larder, along a passage, down steps, 

 &c., and did not halt until he brought him to the larder, 

 and close to the shelf where the beef had been put." 

 [After giving him a piece of beef, the Canon went up- 

 stairs and refused again to be led down as before.] 

 '• Finding he could not prevail on the visitor to make a 

 second excursion to the larder, he went out into the hall, 



took in his teeth Canon 's hat from off the hall table, 



and carried it under the shelf in the larder, where the 

 coveted beef lay out of his reach. There he was found 

 with the hat, waiting for its owner, and expecting another 

 savoury bit when he should come for his hat." 



George J. Romanes 



NOTES ON THE FAUNA OF THE SOLOMON 

 ISLANDS 



AT a late (January, 1879) meeting of the Linnean 

 Society of New South Wales Mr. E. P. Ramsay, 

 F.L.S., &c., read a paper on the Zoology of the Solomon 

 Islands, the subject of this paper being a large collection 

 of mammals and birds collected at Gaudalcana, Savo, 

 and Cape Pitt by Mr. James Cockerell, a well known 

 Australian collector. The collection was obtained from 

 Capt. Brodie, of the schooner Ariel, who had made 

 arrangements with Mr. Cockerell to collect in the islands. 

 Among the novelties described we find two species of 

 Monarcha : (i) M. barbata, with elongated black plumes 



iS from the throat, belonging to the M. loricata and M. 



' ! leucotis section ; (2) M. ritfocastanea, black above, deep 

 chestnut rufous below ; (3) a Sauloprocta, ..S". cockerellii, 

 black above and as far as the breast, which is striped 



, j with white and with the abdomen and under tail-coverts 



M white ; two species of Myiagra, (4) M. ferocyaiim, of a 

 beautiful clear steel-blue black above and on the throat, 

 the remainder of the under surface white; (5) M. pallida, 

 ashy blue above, white below, tail chiefly pale rufous ; (6) 

 a fly-catcher, allied to Rhissidui-a rufifrons, but distinct in 



being smaller and having much more rufous on the head 

 and less on the tail, has been named R. rufofrontaj (7) a 

 curious little sun-bird, Cinnyris melanocephalta, having a 

 black head and the remainder of the body dull olive 

 yellow above, brighter yellow below ; (8) a Pseudorectes 

 of a rich cinnamon colour, with whitish throat, and yellow 

 crissum and ochre-yellow under tail-coverts, is called P 

 cinnamonuiim ; and (9) a Calornis of a uniform bright 

 steel-green colour, with a sharply ridged keel-shaped 

 culmen, but otherwise resembling C. cantor, is named 

 Lalorms solomonctisis. 



In addition to the new'species, the collection contained 

 some of great interest to ornithologists, particularly a 

 beautiful series of the rare Lorius cardinalis, and Halcyon 

 leucopygia, of which the female only was previously 

 described. A var. of Halcyon chloris is also described, 

 which differs from Mr. Sharpe's plate (Sharpe, "Monog. 

 Alced.," pi. 87) in having the whole of the under sur- 

 face rich buff, the under wing-coverts of a deeper tint 

 There is also a large series of Mcgapodeus brenchley'i 

 (Gray), adults and young, and quite a number oi Dicezum 

 erythrothorax. Among the pigeons Carpophaga rufigula 

 (Salvad.) is conspicuous from its peculiarly formed cere, 

 also another large species allied to or identical with C. 

 van-wickii (Cass.). A var. of (?) Ptilopus viridis is de- 

 scribed, also P. supcrba from the same place. 



The following is a complete list of the species recorded 

 and their habitats : — 



1. Astm- soloensis Cape Pitt. 



2. Bazastenozoa ;;; Qaudalcam. 



3. Nmox ,, 



4. Cacatita dticorpsii ... ... ... ... Savo. 



S- Lorius cai-ditialis Savo'and do. 



6. ,, chlorocercus 



7. Geoffroyius hderoclitus 



8. Ecledus polychlorus 



9. Centropus milo Gaudalcana. 



10. Cttctdus taitensis ... ... ... ... Savo. 



11. Chakites plagosus{?) 



12. Eurystomus crassiroUris ... Cape Pi' f 



13. Etdaies /;refflii ... ... ... ... ^^ 



14. CaloHus melalica (?) ... ... ... Save. 



'S- i> solomoiicnsis, sp. no v. ... ... ,, 



16. Sturnoides fidvipennis ... ... ... Gaudalcana. 



17. Graucalus hypoUucos ,, 



i8. ,, „ sp. nov ,, 



19. Edoliisoma {? plunibeum) ... ... ... ,, 



20. Tachycephala orioloidcs ... ... ... ,, 



21. Pseudorectes cinnamomeum, s^.-aav. ... ,, 



22. Monarcha barbata, sp. nov. ... ... ,, 



23. „ rufocastanea, sp. nov.... ... ,, 



24. Sauloprocta tricolor ... „ 



25. ,, cockerelti, s'p. nov. ... ... „ 



26. Rbissidura rufofronta, sp. nov. ... ... ,, 



27. Myiagra ferrocyanea, sp. nov. ... ... ,, 



28. ,, pallida, sp. nov. ... ... „ 



29. Cinnyris melanocepbaliis, %^. nay. ... „ 



30. „ frenata „ 



31. Dicaum erythrothorax ... ... ... ,, 



32. I/alcyoti leucopygia, \ en ... ... ,, 



33. ,, chloris, var Cape Pitt. 



34. ,, sanctus Savo, &c. 



35. Carpophaga rufigula, Salvad. ... ... „ 



36. ,, van-wickii, Cass Gaudalcana. 



37. Ptilopus viridis, va.r. ... ... ... „ 



38. ,, siiperbus, Temm. ... ... ,, 



39. Cltalcophaps chrysochlora, \'a.T. ... ... ,, 



40. Macropygia „ ... Savo. 



41. Megapodius brenchleyi ... ... ... ,, 



42. BiUoroides javanica ... ... ... ,, 



43. Ilerodias garzelta ... ... ... ... „ 



44. Sida personata ... ... ... ... „ 



45. Sterna bergerii ... ... ... 



46. ,, gracilis, Gould ... ... ... „ 



In addition to the birds Mr. Cockerell obtained in 

 quantity two species of Pteropus, two varieties or perhaps 

 species of Cuscus, a species of Harpyia, a new Chiero- 



