MB. E. B. SHAEPE ON THE BIEDS OF NEW GITIlSrEA. 407 



At the same time it is evident that the genus MegatriorcMs is 

 not distinct from JErytlirotriorcliis, Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1875, p. 337, 

 and the species will have to stand as Erytlirotriorcliis Doriw. 



Suborder STEIGES. 

 Earn. BuBONiD^. 



NiNox THEOMACHA {Bp.) ; Sharjje, Cat. B. ii. p. 178. 



A specimen sent by Mr. Groldie is undoubted!}^ N. Goldiei of 

 Mr. Gurney, and, I think, is the same as N. terricolor of Earasay. 

 I incline to the belief that both are identical with iV". theomacha 

 of Bonaparte, although I admit that the very much larger size 

 of iV". Goldiei and its less uniform under-surface seem at first to 

 separate it from the smaller N. theomacha, of which the Museum 

 has an example also from the Astrolabe Mountains. The latter 

 is a male, and the specimen of N. Goldiei is a female, so that, 

 until contrary evidence is adduced, I shall consider N. theomacha 

 is the male and N. Goldiei the female of the same species; although 

 I admit that the difference in size of the sexes is rather more 

 than is usual in the genus Ninooc. I append a full description of 

 the adult female (=_ZV^. Goldiei^. 



Adult. Greneral colour above nearly uniform sooty brown, 

 with a chocolate tinge on the mantle and scapulars, the latter of 

 which have a few scattered white or reddish-white spots on the 

 outer web ; wing-coverts uniform and like the back, the median 

 and greater coverts alone having some spots of white here 

 and there on the outer web, the greater series somewhat tinged 

 with chocolate-brown ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills 

 blackish brown or dark sepia, the quills rather browner exter- 

 nally, and barred indistinctly with greyish or ashy brown, the 

 innermost secondaries with a few scattered white spots on the 

 outer web ; tail uniform sooty brown, with a few lighter bars 

 towards the base of the inner web of the central feathers ; head 

 uniform sooty or dark ashy brown, more inclining to chocolate 

 brown on the forehead ; lores greyish white, with dusky shaft- 

 lines extending above the fore part of the eye ; cheeks and 

 ear-coverts uniform dark ashy brown ; throat ashy fulvous, with 

 dusky centres to the feathers; sides of breast and fore neck 

 uniform warm chocolate-brown; the remainder of the under- 

 surface chocolate-brown, plentifully mottled all over the breast, 

 abdomen, and flanks with large white spots and dusky cross 



