700 DR. W. BLASIUS ON BIRDS FROM CERAM. __[Nov. 28, 
2. TINNUNCULUS MOLUCCENSIS, Schleg., Salvad. i. p. 37. 
“ Female. Iris brown. L. 38 cm., D. 3 cm. Bill bluish, tip 
black ; feet, cere, and skin round eyes light yellow. Lokki, Ceram 
26 November 1881.” 
A transition stage. The primaries are nearly all of a strong reddish 
to light brown colouring, which Salvadori gives as proof of youth ; 
while the older specimens before me of the Brunswick Museum, from 
Celebes and Halmahera, possess quills of a darker brown or black- 
brown. The tail-feathers also, with the exception of the already 
changed middle pair, have a reddish-grey colouring, instead of the 
later shade of ashy grey. 
The specimen is in the Brunswick Museum. 
3. Ninox sauamipita (Bp.), Salvad. i. p. 89. 
Two specimens (male and female). For both, the label says :— 
«Tris dark brown; bill bluish, tip white; feet and cere light yellow. 
Lokki, Ceram.’ 
1. “ ¢. L. 30 em., D.2 em. 30 November 1881.” 
2. «9. L. 27 cm., D.2cm. 26 November 1881.” 
Both these specimens coincide almost exactly with the diagnosis 
given by Salvadori (/.c.) and by Sharpe in the Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. 
ii. p. 184, pl. xii. fig. 2, As in the descriptions of Sharpe and 
Salvadori there is no reference whatever to a difference of the sexes of 
this species, and as in the two Zoological Museums most important 
for this question, those of Leyden and London, both sexes are not 
represented together with any certainty (in the British Museum only 
one ad. stuffed without mention of sex and one male ad., and in the 
Leyden Museum, with the exception of one specimen of ‘ Athene 
hantu, Wallace,’ from Buru, and of one specimen from Mysol, doubted 
by Salvadori, five specimens, among which two are without men- 
tion of sex and three females), I consider it interesting to point 
out a striking difference between the two specimens mentioned 
above, which is possibly sexual. The dark-brown cross bands on 
the white underside are much narrower in the female than in the 
male: those of the female are about 1 to 1'5 mm., those of male 2°5 
mm. in width. Exactly the same appearance shows itself on the dark 
bands of the partially white upper wing-coverts (2 to3 mm., 4 mm.) 
and on the dark-brown bands of the under wing-coverts (1 to 2 mm., 
3to3°5mm.). Moreover the colouring of the back of the female isa 
little lighter red-brown than that of the male, and the light cross bands 
on the back of the female are more conspicuous than in the male. 
The claws, too, of the female are lighter than those of the male, and 
behind the nostrils the cere of the male has a much greater width 
than that of the female (1:0, 0°6 cm.). The difference of size is not 
inconsiderable. 
Long. tot. Al. Caud. Rostr. Tars. 
cm. cm. em, em. em. 
Guise ee 22°59 13°7 2:7 3°5 
OER as 21°7 13°1 2°5 3°3 
