collected in Dutch New Guinea. 321 



remembered that two o£ these have been mounted for many 

 years, and a third, which is in moult on the back, has new 

 feathers of a dark reddish-brown, as in the Queensland birds. 

 There is also in the Museum a specimen from the Alligator 

 River, North Australia, which appears to be less rufous than 

 birds from the Cape York Peninsula. Other specimens, 

 however, from the same locality in the Tring Museum, prove 

 that these differences in the colour of the back are individual. 

 Birds from Port Essington and the Alligator River are typical 

 examples of M. tumulus Gould, which was described from 

 the Coburg Peninsula. 



I was at first inclined to believe that the North Australian 

 bird, M. tumulus^ might be separated from those inhabiting 

 the Cape York Peninsula, which appeared to be darker and 

 more rufous, but I have since modified my views, as it would 

 require a much larger series of skins than we at present 

 possess to settle this point. 



M. d. melvillensis Mathews \_cf. Aust. Av. Record, i. p. 26 

 (1912)] is now admitted by its describer "to be a pure 

 synonym of M. tumulus. 



M. assimilis Masters [P. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. i. p. 59 (1875J], 

 described from Dangeness Island and Bet Island, and, as 

 the author says, " found on many of the low-lying islands 

 in Torres Straits/' is said to differ from il/. tumidus in its 

 smaller size. The Museum possesses specimens from Prince 

 of Wales Island and Booby Island, also in Torres Straits to 

 the west of Dungeness. These are no doubt referable to 

 M. assimilis, and have the upperparts rather lighter rufous 

 and of a more cinnamon-colour than in Queensland birds ; 

 they are also rather smaller than the latter, with a wing- 

 measurement of 9"2 ins. (as in the type of M. assimilis), as 

 compared with 10-10*2 ins. in Queensland birds. The dif- 

 ferences in size and colour are both variable characters, and 

 in my opinion it is undesirable to separate the birds from 

 Torres Straits Islands from M. tumulus, while it is very 

 difficult to draw any line of demarcation between these and 

 M. duperreyi. 



Mr. Claude Grant says that " Duperrey's Megapode was 



SER. X. — JUB.-SUPPL. 2. Y 



