444 ON A NEW SPECIES OF HEMIPODE. 



Ibis, 1882, 67. ON A NEW SPECIES OF HEMIPODE FROM 

 P. 428. NEW BRITAIN.* 



(Plate XXY.) 



A FEW months ago I received, through Mr. Sclater, a small collection 

 of birds in spirit from varions parts of the world, which had been 

 forwarded to him for identification by Herr J. D. E. Schmeltz, Curator 

 of the Godeffroy Museum in Hamburg. Amongst these was a single 

 specimen (which on dissection proved to be a female) of a small Turnix 

 from New Britain, where it had been collected by the late Herr Klein- 

 schmidt, who was murdered by the natives of that inhospitable island 

 shortly after w r ards. 



I at first thought that this bird was referable to the Australian Turnix 

 melanonota of Gould ; but having compared it with Gould's types of that 

 species, now in the collection of the Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia, 

 as well as with a series of ten specimens in the British Museum, I am 

 inclined to consider it specifically distinguishable from the Australian 

 bird, and propose therefore to call it 



TTTBNIX SATTJEATA. (Plate XXV.) 



Affinis T. melanonotae, sed rostro crassiore magisque curvato, superdliis 

 magis rufescentibus, et colore subtus omnino (prcesertim in mento, gula 

 et pectore) intensiore distinguenda. 



Long. al. 3*2, tars. '85 poll. Angl. 



Ibis 1882 Besides my specimen I have seen two quite similar ones, also females, 

 p. 429. one kindly lent me by Canon Tristram, the other in the collection of the 

 British Museum. Both these were collected by Mr. Layard in Blanche 

 Bay, New Britain. 



Turnix saturata differs from the Australian T. melanonota, to which it 

 is closely allied, in its generally darker colour above, as well as in the 

 greater intensity of the rufous colouring of the underparts, this being 

 not only of a much deeper hue, but extending quite onto the throat and 

 chin, the latter being almost white in Australian examples of T. mela- 

 nonota. The rufous eyebrows are also much more conspicuous, and, as 

 so often happens in insular forms as compared with their continental 

 representatives, the beak is much larger and thicker, besides being more 

 curved and of a dirty yellow colour, as opposed to the generally horny 

 colour of the beak of T. melanonota. 



T. saturata as yet appears to have been only found in New Britain and 



* Ibis, 1882, pp. 428-431, PI. XII. 



