412 On the Aamcs of certain Parrots. 



question. Iluvino; saitl this, however, I must point out that 



it has been a])plied to the wrong bird. P. L. S. Mliller gave 



the name to tlie " Purpur-roode Lori " of Vosmaer (Mon. 



]>. 10, t. vii., 1769), and Vosmaer states that his bird came 



from Ceylon! P. L. S. Mliller, however, says " Amboina. 



Vosmaer.^' Now Count Salvador! applies the name roratus 



to the North Moluccan form, wliich comes from Batchian, 



Ternate, and Halmaheira, and adopts cardinali.t, Bodd., for 



the South Moluccan bird, from Ainboina, Ceram, and Bouru. 



Although P. L. S. Miiller's description of roratus fits both 



Moluccan forms, it is clear that it cannot by any possible 



means be made to fit the New Guinea form. Therefore, the 



question before us is to which of the two Moluccan forms 



must the name be applied ; it is quite clear that P. L. S. 



Miiller has applied the name roratus to Vosmaer's bird, 



which was stated to have come from Ceylon, and arbitrarily 



or from private conviction assigned the locality Amboina to 



it. As, however, all the older authors have assigned fantastic 



localities (Ceylon, China, Amazon River, &c.) to the birds of 



this genus, if we use the name roratus at all it must be 



applied to the bird from the locality stated by its author. 



Count Salvadori, therefore, could under no circumstances apply 



it to the North Moluccan bird ; the only two courses oi)en to 



him were either to reject the name altogether or to apply it 



to the bird from Amboina as done by its author. Now, the 



result of this is that the North Moluccan bird is without a 



name, and I propose for it the name of vosmaeri, uom. nov. 



As the whole of the forms of this genus replace one another 



in their respective localities, I look upon the genus Larius as 



consisting of one species, with nine subspecies, as follows : — 



Larius roratus roratus y P. L. S. MllU. South Moluccas. 



vosmaeri, Rothsch. North Moluccas. 



loestermanni, Bp. ?. 



pectoralis, P. L. S. Miill. New Guinea and ad- 

 joining islands. 



• aruensis, G. R. Gray. Aru Islands. 



solomonensis, Rothsch. & Hart. Solomons and 



New Britain Archipelago. 



macgilUvrai/i, Math. N. Queensland. 



riedeli, Mey. Timor Laut Islands. 



Cornelia^ Bp. Sumba. 



If it is considered that P. L. S. Miiller's uameo( pecto7-aUs 

 is inadmissible, as applying to ]\Ioluccan rather than Papuan 

 birds, the name of roratus polychloros. Scop., must be used 

 for the Papuan subspecies. 



