704 DR. W. BLASIXrS ON BIRDS FROM CERAM. [NoV. 28, 



with another bird before me (female) which Dr. Platen has sent from 

 Amboina (of, Blasius and Nehrkorn, " Dr. Platen's ornithologische 

 Sammlungen aus Amboina," Verb, zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xxxii. 

 1882, p. 418, sp. 12): both are still young, as appears from the 

 bluish borders of the red feathers of the breast. The Brunswick 

 Museum possesses an evidently old specimen of the same species 

 from Celebes, which has no blue borders to the feathers of the 

 breast, but a more conspicuous red spot above the lores and a more 

 bluish shade on the head. 



The nearly related species A. hengalensis, Gm., of which the 

 Brunswick Museum possesses a specimen (male) from the East 

 Indies, purchased from Verreaux, has a more greenish tint on the 

 back ; the pretty large spot above the lores and a stripe which 

 begins beneath the eyes and runs backwards are of a clear brown-red, 

 of the same colour as the underside. 



The specimen is in the Brunswick Museum. 



10. Ceyx lepida, Temm., Salvad. i. p. 417. 



"Male. Iris brown. L. 14 cm., D. 1'8 cm. Bill and feet coral- 

 red. Lokki, Ceram, 22 November 1881." 



The specimen is still young, as is evident by the smaller develop- 

 ment of the blue spots on the head, and the paler colouring of the 

 brownish spot on the lores, in comparison with four old birds of the 

 same species now before me which Dr. Platen has sent from Amboina. 

 (cf. Blasius and Nehrkorn, torn. cit. p. 418, sp. 13). The 

 Brunswick Museum possesses one specimen of the same species from 

 Batchian, which in its much darker and less conspicuous spots on 

 the head, and its more intensely red-brown underside, coincides exactly 

 with that variety of colouring which is described by Salvadori for the 

 group of Halmahera. 



The specimen is in the Brunswick Museum. 



11. Cyanalcyon lazuli, Temm., Salvad. i. p. 461. 



Three specimens (d)— (1) "Nov. 18, 1881," (2) "Nov. 29, 

 1881," (3) "Nov. 30, 1881." For all the label repeats -.—"Male. 

 Iris brown. L. 20 cm., D. 4 cm. Bill and feet black. Lokki, 

 Ceram." 



The more ample material sent by Dr. Platen (besides the three males 

 from Ceram, I have before me four males and two females from Am- 

 boina, with exact description of sex by the hand of the collector) 

 gives me occasion to point out an evident mistake of Salvadori in the 

 descriptions of male and female, into which he has certainly been led 

 by the paucity of material before him. (He had only one specimen, 

 evidently wrongly labelled " male," from Amboina in the Museum of 

 Genoa, and another, probably equally wrongly marked " female," in 

 the Museum of Turin.) 



Already Schlegel mentions in the ' Mus. Pays-Bas ' (Alcedines, 

 p. 42), "Male, a poitrine blanche ; " and in the 'Revue' (p. 31): — 

 " Jeune femelle, poitrine blanche, comme dans les males, raais com- 



