18 THE GENUS POEPHYRIO AND ITS SPECIES. 



indicus, (P. calvus), these parts are black with dark blue 

 reflexions. In vitiensis, the greater wing-coverts, the scapulars, 

 and the inner secondaries have a reddish olive hue, but in the 

 other these are blackish olive brown. 



In vitiensis, the outer webs of the primaries have pale blue 

 reflexions, passing into pale green towards the ends, while in 

 indicus, as called by them, the primaries are pale blue, and the 

 secondaries dark blue, and the sides of the head and the breast is 

 brighter. 



Now, if the differences given above were observed, only 

 in birds from very distant localities such as Java and Viti, 

 it might possibly be supposed that there were two species ; 

 but in a series from various localities, such as is now before me, 

 the slight distinctions enumerated disappear, and as regards 

 their colouration, the specimens graduate into one another. 



I find that examples from Celebes have a plumage intermediate 

 between that described by Messrs. Hartlaub and Finsch as 

 characterising the birds from Java and Viti, and exhibit the 

 mantle and back blackish brown with greenish reflexions. 

 The outer webs of the primaries are bluish green, and the 

 greater wing-coverts are olive brown, with a greenish lustre. 

 This at once shakes the belief that there is more than one 

 species, for if the slight difference in colour between Java and 

 Viti birds is sufficient to constitute distinct species, the Celebes 

 specimens must represent a third, and it is not unlikely that 

 every island in which these birds are found, might produce 

 another style intermediate again, and thus many species be 

 established on what is but merely phases of plumage of a 

 single species with a wide distribution. 



Two specimens from Opalu are the smallest of those 

 before me, and have the backs pure olive-brown. These 

 would probably be the P. samoensis, Peale. Canon Tristram 

 (I.e.) has described the bird from the New Hebrides as a 

 distinct species, differing from the P. calvus mainly in size, 

 but I find specimens in the Paris Museum from Java with 

 almost the same dimensions as those given for the P. anei- 

 teumensis, and cannot regard the measurements as indi- 

 cating any specific character. The suggestion that Mr. Cassin 

 gave his measurements from a specimen erroneously marked as 

 coming from Samoa, because they agree exactly with the bird 

 from the New Hebrides, is hardly likely, for Mr. Cassin states 

 that there were several specimens in the collection made by the 

 expedition, all of which came from the Samoan Islands, and 

 he could not perceive " any character indicative of distinction 

 in species" between them and examples from u Java, Sumatra, 

 and other islands of the Malay Archipelago." 



