BIRDB. 19 



specimens are certainly very closely allied to the latter, but have 

 rather a clearer grey throat and a more pronounced cheek-stripo ; but 

 in any caso it appoars to me better to place P. limbata in the genus 

 Stigmatops, alon^ with its congener S. ocularis, and not to consider 

 it a Ptilotis, as Dr. Gadow has done. His plate in the 'Catalogue' 

 gives too much of a brown colour to the bird, and the orange spot 

 behind the eye is too strongly pronounced. 



Nor can I agree with Dr. Gadow concerning his G. chloris, the 

 only actual specimens of which in the British Museum are the two 

 from Mysol, those from the Aru Islands and Lombock being true 

 8. ocularis. 



33. Ptilotis notata, Gould. 



Gould, Ann. 3,- Mag. Nat. Hist. xx. p. 2G9 (1867) ; Ramsay, t. c. 



p. 189. 

 Ptilotis analoga, pt., Gadow, t. c. p. 227. 



a. $ . Prince of Wales Island, Aug. 1881. 



b. 3 . Thursday Island, July 7, 1881. 



This is the species which Count Salvadori unites under the name 

 of P. analoga (llcichenb.) in his ' Ornitologia della Papuasia ' 

 (vol. ii. p. 327), and in all his identifications he is followed by 

 Dr. Gadow, who even goes further than Count Salvadori in his 

 suppression of species, and adds P. Jlavirictus of the latter author as 

 a final offering to the manes of the dominant form, P. analoga. It 

 seems doubtful, however, to me whether Dr. Gadow has really ever 

 seen the true P. Jlavirictus of Count Salvadori, which is from the 

 Fly River, the specimens which he supposes to belong to that species 

 being from South-eastern New Guinea : Salvadori refers all his 

 specimens from this part of the island to P. analoga. 



Putting aside the question of the length of bill, which certainly 

 varies very much, even in specimens from the same locality, the 

 shape of the ear-tuft ought not to be overlooked ; and we find that 

 there are two distinct forms, the birds from Dorey, Mysol, and 

 Waigiou having an elongated yellow ear-tuft. This is accompanied 

 by a very Bulbul-like character, viz. a fluffy rump with strongly 

 marked subtcrminal shades of blackish brown, the lateral feathers 

 tipped with white, and reminding one of Pinarocichla or Polio- 

 lophus. 



All specimens examined by me from other localities have a rounded 

 yellow ear-tuft instead of a longitudinal one, and may be classed 

 under three headings : — 1st. P. aruensis, nob. (Hab. Aru Islands), 

 where the rump is mottled, as in the New-Guinea birds ; and 2nd, 

 P. notata, Gould. The latter species embraces two forms, a large 

 one and a small one (P. gracilis, Gould), the last-named being 

 apparently only found in South-eastern New Guinea and the Cape- 

 York Peninsula. Neither of the two forms of P. notata show the 

 mottling on the rump of P. aruensis or P. analoga. 



I mav add that the specimens from Cape York, referred by the 



c2 



