Birds from Henderson Island. 349 



To tlie difierences between P. insuluris and P. coralensis 

 given by Mr. North^ I may now add tbat tbe two males from 

 Henderson Island are altogetber larger and more heavily 

 built than the birds from the Paumotu Islands. The bill 

 is much stouter and deeper, measuring 5*5 mm. from tbe 

 rhamphothseca to the angle of the mandible, as compared 

 with 4*5 mm. ; the wing longer, 145-147 mm. (144 mm. 

 = 5-7 inclies in the type specimen recorded by Mr. North), 

 as compared with 134-136 mm., and the tail 110 mm,, as 

 compared with 87-89 mm. A female of P. coralensis for- 

 warded by Dr. Richmond is somewhat smaller than the 

 three males recorded above, and measures^ wing 129 mm., 

 tail 86'5 mm. 



The type specimen of P. chalcurus G. R. Gray was founded 

 on a younger example in first adult plumage with the first 

 primary-quill less attenuated towards the extremity than in 

 the fully adult. Younger birds of this group of Fruit- 

 Pigeons may always be recognised by this character. 



Count Salvadori (Cat. Birds B. M. xxi. p. 104) rightly 

 regarded the type of P. chalcurns as synonymous with P. cora- 

 lensis Peale, but described the type of the latter species sent 

 him for examination by the Smithsonian Institution as a 

 distinct species under the name P. smithsonianus (/. c. ]}. 105). 

 Dr. C. W. Richmond, however^ assures me that in hunting 

 down the records of their types, he discovered that the bird 

 sent to Count Salvadori as the type of P. coralensis and 

 described by him as P. smithsonianus, was without doubt tiie 

 type specimen of the former, and was obtained on Carls off 

 Island, though that information was not shewn on the label 

 when Count Salvadori examined it. P. smithsonianus is 

 therefore a pure synonym of P. coralensis. 



I have little doubt that the type of P. chalcurns was not 

 obtained at the Hervey or Cook Islands, for, as Wiglesworth 

 pointed out (' Ibis,^ 1891, p. 574), Garrett spent six mouths 

 in that group and did not obtain specimens. 



In the type of P. chalcurus the colour on the forehead 

 (now faded to purple-violet, the specimen having been 

 mounted in 1855 and exhibited for many years) extends 



