146 THE AUSTRAL AVIAN RECORD [Vol. H. 



is quite correct. T examined the drawing which 

 is preserved in the Mitchell Library in Sydney, New 

 South Wales, and there can be no doubt about this. 

 The bird with the same data as Cockerell gave is in the 

 British Museum, and is the actual type. It should 

 be well known, but it is as weU to emphasize it again 

 that J. T. Cockerell made a trip to Cape York and arrived 

 back with a large collection of birds, presumably Queens- 

 land-collected, but which had been obtained on the 

 Islands to the North, apparently the Aru Islands. The^e 

 were imposed upon Messrs. Salvin and Godman and are 

 now in the British Museum. CockereU also deluded 

 Diggles, as all these seven new birds were from the 

 Cockerell source, and, as will be noted hereafter, are not 

 AustraHan. Paratjrpes, if not the actual birds figured 

 and described by Diggles, of most of these exist in the 

 British Museum Collection. 



Diggles gives as the locality of his M. striatus : " Shot 

 by Mr. Cockerell in April of the present year, in Whit- 

 sunday Passage, about latitude 20 degs., 30 mins. Two 

 were seen, but only one secured." 



It is quite possible that this datum is correct, as it 

 would not be difficult for Henico'pernis to straggle south, 

 as it is known from New Guinea just opposite Cape York. 

 The fact that the authority of the statement is Cockerell 

 is now sufficient to absolutely reject it. 



The other bird was called E{ulahe(yrnis) griseoventris, 

 and I wrote : "If the latter be the Aru Island Eiila- 

 heornis, Diggles' name will displace E. sharpei Rothschild 

 and Hartert." Examination of Diggles' drawing showed 

 that Diggles' species had little to do with Eulabeornis, 

 but was made from a specimen of Gymnocrex plumhei- 

 ventris Gray, 1861. I here reproduce the description 

 given by Diggles : — 



" Head, neck, upper part of the back and chest deep 

 chestnut ; wings and middle of the back ohve brown ; 

 primaries light chestnut ; lower portion of back and 

 tail deep black ; abdomen dark grey ; vent and under 

 tail-coverts black ; feathers of the flanks and under- 



