60 ON THE GENUS PTILOPIJS. 



limits of the genus being reached in the southern part of the Malay peninsula. 

 In the Pacific islands and in the Moluccas they abound, many even of the 

 smallest islands having their peculiar species. These are the smallest and 

 most beautiful of the Fruit-Pigeons ; their ground-colour is generally of a 

 rich grass-green, diversified with bands and spots, caps, and shoulder-patches 

 of the most vivid colours — crimson, pink, purple, white, or yellow, in endless 

 diversity." 



The bird before us was named by Von Rosenberg after F. A. W. Miquel*, 

 a learned Professor of Botany at the University of Leiden, where there is a 

 fine botanical garden. He was the author of more than eighteen considerable 

 works. 



The following translations refer to this bird. 



Schlegel, Nederl. Tijd. v. d. Dierk. iv. p. 22 (1873) :— 



" Ptilopus MiQUELii, Vou Roscnberg, in litteris. 



" M. von Rosenberg has recently sent us, under this name, a series of 

 specimens of a Ptilopus related to P. rivolii, but offering very obvious cha- 

 racters, and originating from other localities, where it appears to represent 

 P. rivolii. These localities are the islands of Meosnoum and Jobie, which 

 extend across the large Geelvink's Bay. This fact is the more curious, as 

 this bird does not live on the other islands of the Geelvink's Bay, viz. 

 Mefoor, nor on the group of Schouten (islands Soek and Biak), as the first 

 is inhabited, in addition to P. rivolii, by a species with a white cross band, 



* " F. W. Miquel was bom on October 24:tli, 1811, at Neuenhaus, in Hanover (Germany), 

 studied in Groniagen, became (1831) Physician at the Amsterdam Hospital, (1835) Master of 

 Botany at the Chnical School of Rotterdam, (1846) Professor of Botany at the Athenaeum of 

 Amsterdam, (1859) Professor at the University of Utrecht, (186.2) Dii'ector of the Government 

 Herbarium at Leiden, died at Utrecht on the 33rd of January, 1871. Blume called after him the 

 genus Miquelia." 



