new Species of Australiaii Birds. 119 



Types. In the Australian Museum, Sydney. 



Remarks. — I have named this species after its discoverer, 

 the late Mr. Alexander Morton, who in 1879 was col- 

 lecting at Port Essington and other parts of the Northern 

 Territory on behalf or the Trustees of the Australian 

 Museum. Gould, in his ' Birds of Australia/ in describing 

 Sittella leucoptera, remarks : — " The sexes differ from each 

 other iu the markings of the head ; the male has the summit 

 only black," and figures both sexes with the entire under 

 surface white and unstreaked. In the ' Catalogne of Birds 

 in the British Museum' ^ Dr. H. Gadow describes the adult 

 of Sittella leucoptera as having the "frontal and orbital 



region and lores white ; under parts white, without 



streaks as in S. pileata." The type was procured by the 

 late Benjamin Bynoe, Esq., on the north-west coast of 

 Australia, and the descriptions of Gould and Dr. Gadow 

 agree with similar specimens collected by the late Mr. T. II. 

 Bowyer-Bower and Mr. E. J, Cairns at Derby, North- 

 western Australia, and by the late Mr. A, S. Macgillivray 

 at Cloncurry, Northern Queensland. 



Alcyone ramsayi, sp, n. 



Adult male. Like the adult male of Alcyone pusilla 

 Temminck, but having the upper parts and sides of the 

 breast rich bright blue instead of ultramarine ; the outer 

 webs of the inner primaries are distinctly shaded with 

 green ; there is a larger extent of blue on the sides of the 

 breast and it nearly meets in the centre, while the white 

 under tail-coverts are slightly tipped with blue. Total 

 length •i'2 inches ; wing 2'1 ; tail 1 ; bill 1 ; tarsus 0"32. 



Hab. Port Essington, Northern Territory of South 

 Australia. 



Type. In the Australian Museum, Sydney'. 



Remarks. — I have named this species after Dr. E. P. 

 Ramsay, formerly Curator of the Australian Museum, who 

 has fully described the same specimen, and pointed out its 



* Cat. Birds Brit. Miis. vol. viii. p. 363 (1883). 



■+ 



