385 



18/9.] MR. E. L. LAYARD ON THE GENUS PTILOPUS. 



I have also to report that our Superintendent has had the four 

 Indian Elephants carefully weighed, and that their sizes and weights 

 are as follows : — 



I propose to record these weights and dimensions in the Society s 

 ■ Proceedings ' for future reference. 



The following letter, addressed to the Secretary hy Mr. E. L. 

 Layard, F.Z.S., dated from Noumea, 29th January, 1879, was 

 read : — 



" Sir,— While giving my friend Mr. D. G. Elliot all the credit 

 due to him for the vast amount of research and labour bestowed on 

 his elaborate paper on the genus ' Ptilopus' (P. Z. S. 1878, p. 500), 

 which has just reached me, and thanking him for the kindly and 

 honorable way in which he has referred to my poor labours in the 

 field of ornithology, permit me to protest as loudly as I can against 

 my name being given as guarantee for very false information. 



"As you, Sir, well know, my wandering life has cut me off from 

 well-filled museums, specimens, and books. I therefore do not pre- 

 sume to offer an opinion on the classification or identification of any 

 species. But I do profess, as a collecting naturalist, to descrihe cor- 

 rectly the habits and geographical distribution of the species which 

 I meet with. 



" Now Mr. Elliot gives my authority, amongst others, for ' Tonga- 

 tabou ' and • Fiji ' as being the habitats of Ptilopus purpuratus, and 

 for the 'Navigators' and Friendly' Islands as being the habitats of 

 his Pt.pictiventris. Surely Mr. Elliot has strangely overlooked what 

 I wrote, P. Z. S. 1876, pp. 495 & 502; also P. Z. S. 1877, p. 464 ! I 



" I know not who procured the specimens examined by Mr. Elliot, 

 and whether their habitats are to be trusted ; but this I affirm, that 

 of these green Ptilopi with magenta-coloured heads I never pro- 

 cured but one species on each group of islands, and I doubt if any 

 one else ever did ; I will undertake to pick out the Fijian, the Tongan, 

 and the Samoan birds among a thousand. I suppose Mr. Elliot 

 unites the Tongan and Fijian races as one ; I am convinced they are 

 distinct. I have sent, either to you or to the ' Ibis,' a paper on this 

 subject, pointing out the distinctions. Where the paper has got to I 

 don't know ; it has apparently shared the fate of some others and 

 been lost sight of; but surely what I have written (l.s. c.) might have 

 prevented Mr. Elliot from giving me as a guarantee for the propaga- 

 gationof what I consider an error." 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1879, No. XXV. 25 



