710 DR. ■W. BLASIUS ON BIRDS FROM CERAM. [NoV. 28, 



the outer tail-feathers protrudes only for about I'o ram. on the 

 outer web and does not reach the tip by 3 cm. This last black- 

 tailed specimen possesses only twelve tail-feathers (if two feathers 

 are absent on account of moulting, they are at any rate not the 

 outer ones), while all the other specimens, as also the one from 

 Amboina, hare fourteen (or thirteen) tail-feathers. 



The male (No. 1) and the two females from Ceram, as well as the 

 male from Amboina, are very like each other with regard to the 

 colouring of the tail, and stand nearly exactly intermediate between 

 the white-tailed (No. 2) and the black-tailed specimen (No. 3). 

 With regard to the black spots on the lower abdomen and under 

 tail-coverts, the white-tailed male (No. 2) does not show them, while 

 No. 1 has only a slight trace of them on the belly and distinct 

 black apical spots on the tail-coverts. The spots are a little less 

 distinct in the female (No. 5), but exist in both places ; while the 

 male (No. 3) has strongly marked spots only on the belly, and the 

 female (No. 4) has them only on the tail-coverts. The male 

 from Amboina is similar to No. 3. 



I will only add that in the female (No. 5) among the incomplete 

 tertiaries, the rest of which are white, one feather on the left side, 

 standing in the midst of the white ones, appears exceptionally almost 

 as blackish as the tertiaries of M. luctuosa generally are. 



The last three specimens Nos. 3, 4, and 5 have been retained for 

 the Brunswick Museum. 



20. Megapodixjs forsteni, Temm., Schlegel, Mus. Pay-Bas, 

 Tinami (1880), p. 70 ; Salvad. Prodr. Orn. Papuas., Ann. Mus. Civ. 

 Genova, xviii. p. 7, sp. 5 (1882). 



" Male. Iris dark brown. L. 34 cm., D. 1 cm. Bill horny 

 brown. Skin round eyes black, feet dark brown. Lokki, Ceram, 

 29 Nov. 1881." 



The specimen is exactly similar to a male of the same species sent 

 by Dr. Platen from Amboina and at present before me (cf. Blasius 

 and Nehrkorn, torn. cit. p. 430, sp. 35). M. forsteni differs 

 from the nearly allied species M.freycineti, Quoy et Gaim., repre- 

 sented in the Brunswick Museum, in the somewhat different shade of 

 colour of the plumage (which is on the whole uniformly brown), and 

 in its somewhat smaller size. 



The specimen is in the Brunswick Museum. 



21. BuTORiDES JAVANICA (Horsf.), Salvadori, Prodr. Orn. Pa- 

 puas., Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, xviii. p. 334, sp. 61 (1882). 



Ardea javanica,ILoTsf., Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 183; Rosenberg, 

 Malayisch. Arch. 1879, p. 324. 



^'Female. Iris golden yellow. L. 40 cm., D. 1 cm. Bill black. 

 Skin round eyes and feet yellowish. Lokki, Ceram, 19 Nov. 

 1881." 



The specimen has uniform black-green lustrous feathers on the 

 head, some of which form a long crest, and broad ferruginous edgings 



