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common to Christmas Island and the Paumotu Islands and, possibly, to the Ifcrvey Islands also. Another link 

 is seen in Chaulelasmus, — a Gadwall having been found by Forster on the Society Islands, which may well 

 have been Chaulelasmns couesi, recently discovered by Dr. Streets on Washington Island. Further, the 

 genus Tat are is common to this group and the Mai^quesas and Society Islands, as , also to North- 

 western Polynesia. 



From the numbers given it will be seen that some groups arc, ornitliologically speaking, almost 

 unknown. Even in those where the most work lias been done new forms should be discovered, unless, 

 indeed, they have become extinct, as is unhappily the case with one or two species onTiertain islands wheje 

 they , appear to have been plentiful a century ago. 



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The Central Coral Islands consist of the groups lying on either side of the equator to the north of 

 Central Polynesia. They all consist of flat coral islands usually covered with palnis and pandanus, but with a very 

 poor vegetation in point of number of botanical species. They may be gathered into a separate ornithological 

 division for the very negative reason that they are distinguished from the other divisions of Polynesia in 

 their not possessing, as far as is known, a single peculiar genus or species of bird, except the recently 

 discovered Dafila modeata Tristr. of Sidney Island in the Phoenix Group. On the other hand 37—38 

 species of sea-birds have been recorded and two wide-ranging land species, — Carpophaga oceanica and 

 that interesting bird, the Tahitian Cuckoo, Urodynamis taitiensis, which wanders all over Polynesia and 

 finds its way at a regular date across hundreds of miles of trackless ocean to New Zealand where it breeds. 

 The amount of ornithological work done in this division may bo gathered from the following numbers: 

 Marshall Islands 27 species; Gilbert 18; Ellice 8; Tokclau 1; Phoenix 26. In view of the considerable 

 size of some of these islands, of the occurence of the genera Tatare and Pomaroa on either side of the 

 division, of the discovery of a peculiar genus, Pinaroloxias, on a lagoon-island in the Paumotu Islands 

 (Bow), etc., more landbirds may be looked for in this scantily tenanted division. 



The following catalogue has been compiled during the past 15 months in Royal Zoological 

 Museum at Dresden. In connection with the subject I have visited the Museums of Berlin, Hamburg, 

 Bremen, Leyden and the British Museum in order to consult the types of the species concerned. 

 I have thus been able to clear up certain questions of synonymy, but, at the same time, have become 

 aware how very much more remains to be done. 



To the Editor of these „Abhandlungcn und Berlchte", Dr. A. B. Meyer, I am under a heavy 

 debt of obligations in regard to the following pages: first, for proposing that I should undertake their 

 compilation; secondly, for much useful advice and numerous suggestions together with the free use of the 

 library and collections of the Royal Zoological Museum of Dresden ; and, lastly, for affording me the welcome 

 and gratifying opportunity of publishing my work in these Transactions. My best thanks are also due to 

 Dr. Heller of this Museum for multifarious assistance. I have also much pleasure in expressing my 

 acknowledgments to Professor Kraepelin, Dr. Reichenow, Dr. Schauinsland, Mr. Biittikofer, 

 Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, and Mr. Ogilvie Grant for kindly aid rendered mc during my visits to the 

 collections under their charge. 



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