698 DR. W. BLASIUS ON BIRDS FROM CERAM. _ [Nov. 28, 
The determination and the scientific analysis of the birds which 
we receive from the Moluccas is greatly facilitated for us by the 
excellent and very comprehensive work of Tommaso Salvadori, 
‘< Ornitologia della Papuasia e delle Molucche,’’ Parte I. Accipitres, 
Psittaci, Picarize (in the ‘Memorie della Reale Accademia delle 
Scienze di Torino,’ serie ii. tomo xxxiii.: Torino, Ermanno Loescher, 
1881, 4to), and Parte II. Passeres (Torino, Stamperia Reale: G. 
B. Paravia e Co., 1881, 4to). This work, as well as the numerous 
publications of the same author in the ‘Annali del Museo Civico di 
Genova,’ and especially also the ‘ Prodromus Ornithologie Papuasiz 
et Moluccarum,’ published in the different series of those Annals, have 
been of the utmost use to me in the present treatise. 
The collection of Dr. Platen is not very large; but among the 
forty-nine birds, which comprise twenty-one different species, we find 
nevertheless one species which is absolutely new to the fauna of 
Ceram, and several others which give occasion for further observations 
and the discussion of other systematic questions. The remarks of 
the collector (given with inverted commas) on the colour of the iris 
and the naked parts of the skins, the total length in fresh condition 
(L.), and the distance between the ends of the wings and tail (D.), 
&c., as well as the precise information as to the locality and the 
time of collecting, will be found most valuable, as they have likewise 
been of great advantage to my former notes on Dr. Platen’s collec- 
tions from Borneo and other localities. 
I shall now give the list of the birds which Dr. Platen has lately 
sent; and (with the exception of the four last species, which 
have not yet been treated by Salvadori) I shall follow the order of 
the above-named work of Salvadori, adding the number of the page 
for each separate species. 
1. CuncUMA LEUCOGASTER (Gm.), Salvad. i. p. 7. 
“Male. Iris grey-brown. L. 72 cm., D. 3:5 em. Bill horny grey- 
blue ; cere and feet light grey-blue. Lokki, Ceram, 28 November 
1881.” 
The specimen is young, and has nearly the coloration of the 
feathers which Salvadori describes as belonging to the young bird ; 
only the tips of the brown feathers of the head, neck, and back 
are in part of a clear white; the larger upper tail-coverts are 
whitish near the base, and near the tip light brown-mottled ; the 
smaller upper tail-coverts are brown, tipped with whitish spots ; the 
light tips of the feathers of the underparts, which are generally of 
a uniform brown, are not pure white, but light ferruginous. The 
primaries are at the ends nearly black for about two thirds of the 
length, at least dark brown without any trace of grey. Salvadori 
has mentioned a similarly different coloration in describing some 
young specimens from Halmahera. It is particularly striking that 
the tail of our individual is considerably longer than the measure given 
by Salvadori, as also than those of two old birds of the Brunswick 
Museum, one of which we have received with the general indication 
‘Moluccas’ from Mr. G. A. Frank, in Amsterdam, while we owe the 
