1877. DUKE OF-YORK-ISLAND, ETC. 103 
“ This short description of the plumage is quite sufficient to show 
that the New-Ireland bird is truly C. aspasia; the rather more 
golden shade of the crown is certainly too slight to be of any impor- 
tance. The steel-blue throat is so faintly shaded with lilac that it 
shows its affinities to be rather with the Dorey type than with the 
Popo bird. 
“T shall now give the measurements, that they may be compared 
with two specimens, one from Dorey, and one from Mysol, in the 
British Museum. 
Length. Culmen. Wing. Tail. Tarsus. 
in. in. in. in. in. 
New Ireland ...... 4:2 0°65 2°35 7 0°65 
WGEEY foe. dive we oe 4:2 0°65 2-4 1°5 0°55 
1) C0 Re eee 4:0 0°70 2-4 15 0:60 
“The adult female from Duke-of- York Island has the breast bright 
sulphur-yellow, barely tinted with olive towards the front of the 
chest, and the under tail-coverts slightly paler. The throat is ashy 
tinted white. The upper part of the head and back of the neck ash- 
grey, the back and the edges of the wing-feathers olive-yellow, the 
black tail with the white tips to some of the outer feathers, are cha- 
racters agreeing perfectly with the other females I have seen of this 
species. The paler and brighter underparts are apparently only 
due to the skin having been less exposed to the blackening influence 
of the London atmosphere. 
«The young male, or, perhaps, more properly the male in moult re- 
sembles the female, excepting that the sides of the throat and a few 
of the middle feathers are steel-blue, and on the front of the chest 
there are a few black feathers, the first signs of the coming adult 
plumage. 
“In Mr. Godman’s collection there are two specimens of this 
bird, said to have been obtained at Cape York, Australia. This 
extension of the range so far south as Australia appeared somewhat 
improbable for a member of the ‘ Hermotimia’ group, considering 
how extremely limited is the range of all the other species of this 
group. 
“This species, however, was known to be the most widely spread 
of the ‘ Hermotimia’ group and now that we find that it extends so 
far eastward as Duke-of-York Island, we have little reason to doubt 
its extending also southward to Cape York ; and on examination of 
the two specimens in Mr. Godman’s cabinet, it will.be seen that the 
Cape-York specimens have the violet shade on the throat, indicative 
of the western form of this species as found at Popo and Mysol, but 
agree in the colouring of the crown with the true C. aspasia from 
Dorey, and not with the type specimen of Hermotimia chlorocephala, 
Salvadori, from the Aru Islands.” 
16. NECTARINIA FRENATA. 
Nectarinia frenata, Miill. Verh. Zool. p. 61, pl. 8. fig. I. 
