526 MR. D. G. ELLIOT ON THE GENUS PTILOPUS. [May 7, 



correct name for this Fruit-Pigeon ; and, as will be seen by the list of 

 synonyms given above, the species has been presented with a very 

 fair number of appellations. In order to explain why I consider 

 that this bird, of all those given in this paper, should alone bear the 

 name of purpuratus, it will be necessary to begin at the beginning. 

 Latham, in his 'General Synopsis of Birds,' vol. ii. p. 626. sp. 15 

 (1783), describes a Dove, which he says came from Otaheite, as the 

 '* Purple-crowned Pigeon," the chief characteristics of which were : — 

 " Forehead to the middle of the crown purple ; head, neck, and 

 underparts of body pale green, inclining to ash-colour ; vent and 

 under tail-coverts yellow. Tail greenish black, with green edges, and 

 when spread a greyish bar appears near the end, the colour only 

 occupying the inner webs of each feather." To this description 

 Gmelin gave the name of Columba purpurata. Now there is no 

 Pigeon known belonging to the genus Ptilopus that will answer to 

 the above description of Latham. No such bird is found upon the 

 island of Otaheite, whence, according to Latham, this curiously 

 compounded specimen came ; for it carries the head of the bird from 

 Tonga-Tabou and the body of the species found in Otaheite, 

 distinguished afterwards by Lesson as taitensis. Latham possessed 

 specimens from both these localities, and remarked upon their dif- 

 ferences, but did not deem them distinct species ; and it is very 

 evident that when he wrote his description he took his characters 

 from both forms. The bird from Otaheite does not possess a purple 

 forehead or crown, these parts being ash-colour with but a faint 

 tinge of lilac ; therefore it could never have been designated as the 

 "Purple-crowned Pigeon." Nor does the Tonga-Tabou bird have the 

 underparts of the body pale green inclining to ash-colour (which is 

 a characteristic of the Otaheite species), but has the flanks and abdo- 

 men grass-green, with a conspicuous purplish-black spot in the centre 

 of the latter. Therefore the name Col. purpurata, Gmel., having 

 been founded upon a bird that did not exist, taken from a description 

 comprising portions of two distinct species, cannot be accepted, and 

 should be rejected from the nomenclature of the genus. 



The next author after Gmelin who mentioned this species was 

 Shaw (/. c.) (1819). He, however, also confounded two species, and 

 his name of purpurata must be passed over. Temminck follows in 

 1822 (I. c.) with Columba porphyracea ; and this name, attributed to 

 Forster, has been used by various writers when referring to this bird, 

 especially from the island of Tonga-Tabou. Now the C. porphy- 

 racea of Temminck was bestowed upon the bird figured by Madame 

 Knip in their great work on the Pigeons, at plate 35, and there con- 

 sidered as a variety of the Pt. ewingii, and called Columba pur- 

 purata. Temminck states (Trans. Linn. Soc. 1822, p. 130) that his 

 specimen came from New Holland ! The figure resembles no species 

 from that country, nor indeed from any other ; and it can only be 

 through an examination of the type that a correct knowledge of the 

 species intended can be ascertained. I have therefore placed Tem- 

 minck's name, as well as porphyrea, Wagl., founded upon Tem- 

 minck's bird, whatever it may have been, among the synonyms of 



