74 Mr. W. n. Ogilvie-Qrant on Birds 



Ptilotis cinerea Roths. & Hartert {nee Sclater), N. Z. x. 

 p. 444 (1903). 



Ptilotis cinerea marmorata Roths. & Hartert, N. Z. xx. 

 p. 516 (1913). 



a, b. $ . White Water Camp, Kapare River, 1500 ft., 

 31st Oct. & 8th Nov. 1910. [Nos. 395, 458, C. H. B. G.] 



c-h. $ ?. Camp 6 a, Utakwa River, 2900 £t., 17th & 

 18th Jan. 1913. IC.B.R.'] 



i-m. $ . Camp 6 c, Utakwa River, 5500 £t., 20th Jan. & 

 19th-25th Eeb. 1913. [C. B. K.'\ 



Iris violet-grey ; bill sooty-black ; feet bluish-slate-coloiir. 



The males are usually somewhat larger than the females. 



8 males : wing 102-115 ; 4 females : wing 94-104 mm. 



Since writing their " Notes on Papuan Birds," in vol. x. 

 of the ' Novitates Zoologicse,' 1913, Messrs. Rothschild and 

 Hartert have modified a good many of their views on a 

 number of important points. JFor instance, in vol. x. p. 444, 

 it was definitely stated that P. marmorata Sharpe was 

 synonymous with P. cinerea Sclater, from Arfak, while in 

 vol. XX. p. 516, P. marmorata is again resuscitated, but as 

 a subspecies of P. cinerea. Apparently the authors are still 

 under the impression that P. cinerea is based on an immature 

 specimen with a uniform grey breast, and that the latter 

 becomes spotted with white when the bird is adult. This is 

 certainly a mistake as regards P. cinerea, for the British 

 Museum possesses two fully adult examples (specimens c 

 and d of Salvadorl, 0. P. ii. p. 339) collected by Bruijn in 

 Arfak, and in both these birds the breast is uniform grey. 

 It is possible that young examples of 1*. ma7^m,orata have the 

 breast uniform, but none of our specimens, twenty-six in 

 number, supports this theory, though one at least, from the 

 Aroa River, appears to be immature. The fact is that 

 P. marmcyrata is not nearly related to P. cinerea, and cannot 

 be regarded as a subspecies of it, the latter, with its brown 

 back and uniform grey underparts, belonging to a different 

 section of the genus. 



Another question which arises is — Should the specimens 

 from Dutch New Guinea listed abm-e be separated from 



