38 Mr. W. R. Ooilvie-Grant on Birds 



d-L J ? . Upper Mimika River, 5th Feb.-31st March, 

 1910. [W. G.k Nos. 1029, 1030, 1115, G. C. S.] 



]^-u. (? ? et c? ? imm. Pariniau, Mimika River, 30th 

 Aug.-18th Dec. 1910. [Nos. 43, 57, 107, 124, 125, 564, 

 610, 732, 757, 762, C.H. B. (?.] 



V. S- Wataikwa River, 28th Oct. 1910. [No. 1451, 

 G. C. S.l 



w-c . c? 2 . Launch Camp, Setakwa River, 4th Oct.- 

 9th Nov. 1912. [C.B.K.'] 



d'. ? . Cauoe Camp, Setakwa River, 5th Nov. 1912. 

 [C.B.K.] 



Adult. Iris clear yellow ; bill pale lemon or greenish- 

 yellow; feet pale yellow-ochre, creamy yellow, or pale 

 yellow. 



Young. Iris, bill, and feet pale yellow. 



This subspecies, originally described from the Fly River, 

 was hitherto unrepresented in the British Museum Collection. 

 A good deal of confusion has occurred about these Starlings^ 

 and Messrs. Rothschild and Hartert, in their latest remarks 

 on the subject {cf. N. Z. xx. p. 526), have stated, obviously in 

 error, that the name M. o. rohertsoni should be referred to the 

 birds from the north with a black patch on the occiput. In 

 the first place, M. orientalis is not a subspecies of M. atiais 

 Lesson, as has been stated by these authors and by Dr. van 

 Oort, but is a perfectly distinct species, which occurs in the 

 same district as Al. orientalis. M. anais, moreover, is a struc- 

 turally different bird, with the long orange feathers of the 

 chest rather stiff and disintegrated and each concealing a short 

 glossy black feather at its base in the fully adult bird ; a 

 character never found in the adults of 31. orientalis or 

 M. 0. robertsoni. Another point is that in M. anais the head, 

 including the crown and occiput, is glossy black both in the 

 young and in the adult. 



As regards M. orientalis and M, o. robertsoni, it is the 

 former which has a black spot on the occiput in the adult 

 bird and inhabits Northern New Gruinea, from Arfak and 

 Humboldt Bay eastwards to North-east and South-east New 

 Guinea, while M. o. robertsoni has the crown and occiput 

 uniform orange in the adult bird, and ranges throughout 



