1871.] ON BIRDS FROM THE PACIFIC ISLANDS. 2/ 



The pollex is armed with a short, sharp spine (spina pollicaris). 

 The oil-gland is present, with some short feathers at the end. The 

 loral region is feathered sparingly with short velvet-like feathers. 

 Eyes large. 



12. Porphyrio vitiensis, Peale ; Finsch et Hartl. I.e. p. 172; 

 id. Journ. f. Orn. 1870, p. 135 (Tonga). 



P. samo'ensis, Peale. 



P. indicus, Cass, (nee Horsf.), Unit. St. Expl.Exp. p. 308. 



It was Mr. Cassin who first declared the Porphyrio of the 

 Navigator group to be identical with the Javan P. indicus, Horsf. 

 Not having had an opportunity of comparing specimens from the 

 Navigators, we followed the views of Mr. Cassin without hesitation, 

 although every naturalist who takes a special interest in geogra- 

 phical distribution would consider it as a very strange fact to meet 

 with a Javan species so far east, and this so much the more as the 

 neighbouring Viti group is inhabited by a different species, P. vi- 

 tiensis. In 1868 we got two specimens of Porphyrio from Upolu, 

 collected by Dr. Graffe, and comparing them carefully with speci- 

 mens from Viti and Java, we became convinced that the Porphyrio 

 from the Navigators is by no means the same as the Javan P. in- 

 dicus, but in every respect like P. vitiensis, a species which we have 

 since received also from the Tonga group. The collection of Mr. 

 Kubary contains a single specimen from Savai, which agrees very 

 well with a specimen from Upolu, except that the back is darker, 

 more blackish olive-brown, a difference already mentioned by us 

 after examining a specimen from Ovalou (I. c. p. 280). 



We have no doubt that P. vitiensis, Cassin, was founded upon 

 immature birds ; for the differences pointed out by Mr. Cassin are 

 chiefly based upon the " much smaller size," a character which is not 

 constant, as remarked already in our book on the Central-Polynesian 

 birds, where also the differences between P. vitiensis and P. indicus 

 are carefully explained (p. 174). P. vitiensis, therefore, undoubtedly 

 is the only species occurring in the Central Polynesian Islands, and 

 P. indicus must be struck out of its avifauna. Its size, as usually 

 in Porphyrio, varies a good deal. 



Long. al. 

 8" 0"' 

 8 1 

 8 0-8 10 



13. Actitis incanus (Gml.) ; Finsch & Hartl. I. c. p. 184. 



Two specimens in winter dress of this widely distributed species. 



Long. al. caud. rostr. tars. dig. med. 



6 k yti 2" 9"' 18'" 15'" 12'" (Savai.) 



6 7 2 7 — — — (Savai.) 



5 10-6 4 — 16-17 — — (Savai, Graffe.) 



5 11 2 6 17 15 12 (Rarotonga.) 



