18 MR. A. R. WALLACE ON THE BIRDS OF BOURU. [Jan, 13, 



be seen from the description given by myself (Colubr. Sn. p. 227), 

 and from the figures (antea, p. 17), where fig. a represents the 

 head-shields of Pseudonaia nuehalis, and fig. b those of Biemennia 

 superciliosa. 



The synonymy of this species, therefore, would be : — . 



UlEMENNIA SUPERCILIOSA. 



a. Adult. 



1856. Pseudoelaps superciliosus, Fischer in Abhandl. Geb. Natur- 

 wiss. iii. p. 107, taf. 2. fig. 3 (head, not quite correct). 



1859. Pseudoelaps sordellii, Jan in Rev. «& Mag. Zool. 1859, 

 pi. C (head). 



1859. Pseudoelaps kubingii, Jan, I. c, (founded on an accidental 

 variety). 



b. Young. 



1858. Biemansia annulata, Giinth. Colubr. Snak. p. 213. 

 1862. Furina textilis, Krefft, P. Z. S. 1862, p. 149. 



4. List of Birds collected in the Island of Bouru (one 

 OF THE Moluccas), with Descriptions of the New 

 Species. By Alfred R. Wallace, F.Z.S. 



(Plates IV., v., VI.) 



This collection of birds was made by myself during two months of 

 the year 1861. It consists of sixty-six species, among which were 

 no less than seventeen new ones. Of these, three were found about 

 the same time in the Island of Sula, and, with a new Pitta, have 

 already been described in the Society's ' Proceedings,' leaving thirteen 

 to be described in the present paper. 



In my paper "On the Birds of the Sula Islands," read before the 

 Society at their last Meeting, I pointed out that the large proportion 

 of purely Celebes forms found there forced us to the conclusion that 

 a closer connexion had once existed between those islands and Celebes, 

 and required us to class them as forming a single zoological group. 

 The Island of Bouru must, on the contrary, be classed with the Mo- 

 luccas ; for, leaving out about twenty species of rather wide distribu- 

 tion, the remaining forty-six are all either identical with, or most 

 nearly allied to, Moluccan species. Not a single characteristic Celebes 

 form is found in Bouru ; and there are only three birds in the island 

 whose affinities seem rather with the Indian than the Australian 

 region, viz. Alcedo molnccensis, Hirundo javanica, and Treron aro- 

 ma tica. 



Bouru is therefore the western limit of the Moluccan fauna, and is 

 the poorest portion of it, having several very remarkable deficiencies. 

 Lorius, found in every other island of the Moluccas and New Guinea, 

 is absent ; Cacatua, found in every island of the Australian region, 

 is also absent ; and, stranger still, Buceros and Corvus, found in 

 almost every large island of the archipelago, are both wanting. 



