ON THE GENUS PTILOPUS 



(PTILONOPUS, Swains.). 



By Mr. G. D. ROWLEY. 



[Contiaued from vol. ii. p. 351.] 



PTILOPUS MIQUELI, Von Rosenberg. 



Ptilopus miguelii, Schlegel, Ned. Tijd. voor de Dierk. iv. p. 22 (1873). 



Ptilopus miqueli, Schlegel, Mus. P.-B. Col. p. 26 (1873). 



Ptilopus micqueli, Meyer, Sitzungsber. d. k. Akad. d. Wiss. Ixx. p. 128 (1874). 



Ptilopus miquelii, Salvador!, Prodr. Orn. Pap. Col., Ann. Mus. Civ. d. Gen. ix. p. 196 (1876). 



The beauty of Pigeons is great ; and our knowledge of the number of species 

 increases rapidly. Mr. Alfred R. Wallace (in his most interesting article in 

 'The Ibis,' 1865, N. S. vol. i. p. 365 et seqq.^ puts those of the Austro- 

 Malayan subregion at fifty-four*; whereas Dr. Salvadori, in 1876 (Ann. 

 Mus. Civ. d. Gen.), enumerated ninety species. How many will have 

 been discovered fifty years hence .'' What the number would have been 

 if the world had not seen a monkey, we cannot tell ; it is to this 

 animal that Mr. Wallace, with much reason, attributes their absence 

 in certain localities. As regards the genus under consideration, he says 

 (p. 367) : — " New Guinea is their metropolis, whence they diminish in every 

 direction, only one species occurring in Borneo and Sumatra, and the utmost 



* At page 372, however, he makes them eighty-four species. 



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