700 DR. W. BLASIXJS ON BIRDS FROM CERAM. [NoV. 28, 



2. TiNNUNCULUs MOLUCCENSIS, Schlcg., Salvad. i. p. 37. 



"Female. Iris brown. L. 38 cm., D. 3 cm. Bill bluish, tip 

 black ; feet, cere, and skin round eyes light yellow. Lokki, Ceram 

 26 November 1881." 



A transition stage. The primaries are nearly all of a strong reddish 

 to light brown colouring, which Salvadori gives as proof of youth ; 

 while the older specimens before me of the Brunswick Museum, from 

 Celebes and Halmaliera, possess quills of a darker brown or black- 

 brown. The tail-feathers also, with the exception of the already 

 changed middle pair, have a reddish-grey colouring, instead of the 

 later shade of ashy grey. 



The specimen is in the Brunswick Museum. 



3. NiNox sauAMiPiLA (Bp.), Salvad. i. p. 89. 



Two specimens (male and female). For both, the label says : — 

 " Iris dark brown ; bill bluish, tip white ; feet and cere light yellow. 

 Lokki, Ceram." 



1. " d . L. 30 cm,, D. 2 cm. 30 November 1881." 



2. " ? . L. 27 cm., D. 2 cm. 26 November 1881." 



Both these specimens coincide almost exactly with the diagnosis 

 given by Salvadori {I. c.) and by Sharpe in the Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. 

 ii. p. 184, pi. xii. fig. 2. As in the descriptions of Sharpe and 

 Salvadori there is no reference whatever to a difference of the sexes of 

 this species, and as in the two Zoological Museums most important 

 for this question, those of Leyden and London, both sexes are not 

 represented together with any certainty (in the British Museum only 

 one ad. stuffed without mention of sex and one male ad., and in the 

 Leyden Museum, with the exception of one specimen of ' Athene 

 hantu, Wallace,' from Buru, and of one specimen from Mysol, doubted 

 by Salvadori, five specimens, among which two are without men- 

 tion of sex and three females), I consider it interesting to point 

 out a striking difference between the two specimens mentioned 

 above, which is possibly sexual. The dark-brown cross bauds on 

 the white underside are much narrower in the female than in the 

 male : those of the female are about 1 to r5 mm., those of male 2'5 

 mm. in width. Exactly the same appearance shows itself on the dark 

 bands of the partially white upper wing-coverts (2 to 3 mm., 4 mm.) 

 and on the dark-brown bands of the under wing-coverts (1 to 2 ram., 

 3 to 3'5 mm.). Moreover the colouring of the back of the female is a 

 little lighter red-brown than that of the male, and the light cross bands 

 on the back of the female are more conspicuous than in the male. 

 The claws, too, of the female are lighter than those of the male, and 

 behind the nostrils the cere of the male has a much greater width 

 than that of the female (10, 0-6 cm.). The difference of size is not 

 inconsiderable. 



