2/4 MR. W. A. FORBES ON THE GENUS MYZOMELA. [Mar. 4, 



isl.and of Ilotumali, north of the Fijis. Fortunately Gray's type is 

 still in existence in the gallery of tlie British Museum ; and on com- 

 paring the birds from Ilotumah with it, it was at once evident that 

 they were of the same species, though Gray's figure represents a bird 

 with a uniformly scarlet underside. About the same time ]\Ir. Sharpe 

 got a specimen (from which the figure is taken) of the same bird, 

 apparently identical in every respect, from the island of Mallil'ollo 

 (in my paper, /, c, by a mistake I wrote Erromango) in the New 

 Hebrides, where it was obtained by Mr. Wykeham Perry, H.M.S. 

 ' Pearl.' The species thus has a wide range, though I believe the 

 above-mentioned four specimens (which are all nearly or quite adult) 

 are as yet the only ones of this bird ever brought to Europe. Tlie 

 female is similar to the male in colour, but a little duller (^conf. I. c. 

 p. 353). 



24. Myzomela rosenbergi. 



Myzomela rosenhergi, Schleg. Ned. Tijd. Dierk. iv. p. 38 (1871) ; 

 Rosenberg, Reist. Geelv. Baai, p. 138, t. xvi. fig. 2 (1875) ; Meyer, 

 Sitzungs-ber. Wien. Akad. Ixix. i. pp. 21 1, 212 (1874). 



S ad. niycr nitore nonnullo metallico ; collo, dorso, iiropyyioque, 

 cum pectore splendkle coccineis ; rostro nigro, pedihus cornets. 

 Long. al. 2"5, caud. 1'7, rostr. a culm. '65, tars. '55 {poll. Angl.). 

 5 Tufescenti-hrunnea, plumis ad basin nigris, ad rhachin palli- 

 dioribus ; fronfe, pectore tiropygioque coccineis, mento gulaque 

 nigricantibus ; alls caudaque fuscis, remigibus externe olivaceo- 

 Umbatis, tectricum alarum apicibus brunneis ; pogoniis internis 

 remigiim albis. 

 cJ jr. femiiicE similis, sed /route, pectore, uropygio, mento gulaque 



corpore concoloribus. 

 Hub. in Novil Guinea. 



This beautiful and very distinct Myzomela was first described by 

 Prof. Schlegel from two specimens, both males, collected by Von 

 Rosenberg in the north-western peninsula of New Guinea. Dr. 

 A. B. Meyer obtained five specimens from the Arfak Mountains near 

 Hattam, at an elevation of about 3500 feet above the sea, during 

 his expedition to New Guinea in 1873. Since then numerous 

 specimens have been obtained by various travellers in the same 

 district. That the species is not confined, however, to the Arfak 

 Mountains is shown by the fact ' that Signer D'Albertis obtained 

 two skins of this same bird, identical with Arfak specimens, from 

 the natives of the neighbourhood of Epa, near Hall 15ay, S.E. New 

 Guinea. 



According to Dr. Meyer the adults of both sexes are similar, and 

 the bird above described as the female (from two nearly identical 

 specimens so sexed by Beccari) is really the young assuming adult 

 plumage. Count Salvador!, however, writes me that he has about 

 40 specimens of this species, and maintains the view he has already 

 expressed (Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. vii. p. 917, 1875), that Meyer's 

 "young" are in reality females. A very young bird(c?)iu the 

 1 Cy. Ann. Mus. Civ. Geuova, vii- p. 799 (1875). 



