(552 Birds of Celebes; Peristeridae. 



years ago specimens from there were very rare in collections; Meyer collected 

 a good many, but found it not common and difficult to get; our native collectors 

 appear to have found it not rare in 1892 — 93, though the proportion of speci- 

 mens sent is rather under than above the average number for a Pigeon. We 

 have specimens before us dated at intervals from April to December, as well 

 as the young; it is possible, therefore, that the species is stationary in North 

 Celebes. It has only recently (69, 71) been recorded from the South of the 



island. 



Prof. W. Blasius has separated the Great Sangi bird as a local variet), 

 and the distinction is admitted by Count Salvadori; but in consequence of 

 the unstationary habits of the species in some parts we entertain some doubts 

 as to the racial distinctness of the Sangi birds, though our only adult male from 

 Great Sangi seems to bear out Prof. W. Blasius' distinctions, being more 

 vinous and less blue on the nape, hind neck and mantle^ and with a browner 

 tinge below than nine adult males from Tagulandang, Banka, Mantehage, North 

 Celebes, Halmahera, Ceylon, and India. There is a little vinous at the base 

 of the bill, but this is also seen in one or two Celebesian examples. 



Compared with the above Indian and Ceylon examples, the Celebes bird 

 is somewhat darker purplish below, a ditference already pointed out by Legge. 

 C. indica may be termed a species of the Indian Region, though it ranges east 

 as far as N. W. New Guinea ; in other parts of the Australian Region it is 

 represented by C. chrysochlora (Wagl.)," which is found in the Timor Group, 

 some of the Southern Moluccas and S. E. New Guinea as far as the NeAv 

 Hebrides and South Australia. This bird, which never seems to occur in the 

 same locality with C. indica, differs from the latter in wanting the white fore- 

 head and superciliary stripe, the whole head, neck and mantle being dark vinous 

 with a leaden tinge on the nape, the white ulnar bar is broader, and the inner 

 webs of the quills much more extensively cinnamon-rufous. Count Salvadori 

 considers the adult male of the Sangi bird intermediate between the two, and 

 it appears possible that the birds may have met on that island and have interbred. 

 On Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean a species, C.natalis Lister, occurs, 

 the male of which is similar to that of C. indica, but the female has the middle 

 tail-feathers and upper tail-coverts cinnamon. C. stephani, which occurs in 

 Celebes, may be recognised by its cinnamon-rufous lower back and rump, crossed 

 by a band of burnt umber; its under surface is dark russet, and the male has 

 a sharply-defined sinciput of white. 



The plumage of the young of Chakophaps indica calls to mind, as Avas re- 

 marked by Blyth, that of the genus Macropygia, a fact of considerable import- 

 ance in considering the phylogeny of Pigeons. The case is almost as striking 

 as that of the little slate-and-rufous Hawks of Celebes {Accipiter and Spilospizias), 

 the young of which are like Kestrels. Most usually the sexes of Pigeons are 

 similar and the young assume the adult plumage at once; Macropygia is an 

 exception, and a more striking exception is the present Clialcophaps. 



