1891.] ON THE BIRDS OF THE PHCENIX ISLANDS. 289 



DODONA EGEON. 



Taxila egeon, Doubl. & Hew. Gen. Diurn. Lep. ii. p. 422, t. 69. 2, 



Dodona egeon. Butt. Ind. ii. p. 314. 



Seems to be fairly common in the Karen Hills at 4000-5000 feet, 

 and occurs also at Bernardmj'o. The female is undescribed, and 

 differs considerably from the male in having the yellow m irkings 

 paler and much more diffused. I have females also from Kulu and 

 Sikkim, which are somewhat darker than these. 



EXPLANATION OP PLATE XXVII. 



Fig. 1. Ypthma methora. Hew., (^ , p. 267. 



2. Ypthiina narasingha, Hew., j > P- ^33. 



3. Mgcciksis dohertyi, n. sp., c?, p. 261. 



4. Mycalesis dohertyi, n. sp., § , p. 261. 



.5. Araschnia prorsoides, Blanch., i^ , p. 28-^. 



6. Araschnia p>''orsoides, Blanch., 2 , p. 285. 



7. Neurosigma doubledayi, var. ?, (^ , p. 277. 



8. Dodona dcodata, Hew., S > P- ^88. 



2. Notes on the Birds of the Phoenix Islands (Pacific Ocean) . 

 By J. J. Lister, M.A., F.Z.S. 



[Received April 2, 1891.] 



The Phoenix Islands are a scattered group of low coral islands 

 lying far out in the South Pacific Ocean, extending from 1° north of 

 the Equator to nearly 5^ south of it. They are within 10° to the east 

 of the 180th parallel, which divides east longitude from west. 



There are eight islands south of the equator, viz. : — -Sydney, 

 Phoenix, Canton or Mary, Hull, Enderbury, Birnie, M'Kean, and 

 Gardner Islands, and two outliers of the group to the north oi' it — > 

 Rowland and Baker Islands. 



Situated in the dry, comparatively rainless belt which extends 

 some degrees on either side of the Equator, they are uninhabited 

 desolate places only frequented by sea-birds, which resort to them 

 in innumerable multitudes for nesting \ 



The notices of birds of this group with which I am acquainted 

 are the following :— -References to some of the islands as localities in 

 Cassin's edition of the ' United States Exploring Expedition, 

 Mammalogy and Ornithology,' and in the ' Fauna Centralpoly- 

 nesiens ' of Finsch and Hartlaub ; a description by Canon Tristram 

 of an apparently new species of Duck {Dufila modesta, Tristram), 

 and mention of other birds collected by -Mr. Arundel in Sydney 



^ Of late years the islands have been turned to acconnt as a source of 

 guano. An interesting general description oi these and other guano islands 

 was read by Mr. J. T. Arundel, F.R.G.S., before the Greographical Society of the 

 Pacific, in San Francisco. It was reprinted in the ' New Zealand Herald,' 

 July .5 and 12, 1800. See also J. D. Hague, ■' On the Gruano Islands of the 

 Pacific Ocean" (' Silliman'.s Journal,' xxxiv. 1862. pp. 224-24.3). 



Prog. ZooL. Soc— 1S91, No. XIX. 19 



