ON THE GENUS PTILOPUS. I75 



the body, and of a somewhat blue-green, the same shade of green as on 

 the head of the male (just as is the case with the female of P. prasinorrhous : 

 cf. Schlegel, Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk. iv. p. 22) ; and the belly and under 

 tail-coverts are variegated with pale citron-yellow, the edges of the feathers 

 being marked with that colour. 



As to the affinities of Ptilopus speciosus, cf antea, part xii pp. 62, 63 

 (Dr. Meyer's remarks). I also reproduce Dr. Meyer's contribution to his 

 fifth paper on the ornithology of New Guinea and the islands of Geelvink 

 Bay, in the Sitzungsb. d. k. Akad. of Vienna, Ixx. (1874) p. 128. He there 

 says, under the head of Ptilopus rivoU, Flor. Prev. : — 



" P. rivoli and P. prasinorrhous, and the allied forms, present an interest 

 as to geographical distribution in this sense, that two such closely allied 

 ones as P. hellus, Scl., and P. rivoli occur together in New Guinea, and 

 both P. speciosus, Rosenb., and P. rivoli in company on the small island of 

 Mafoor — a remarkable fact ; whereas on the island of Mysore only P. speciosus, 

 Rosenb., appears, and on the other island, Jobi, only P. miqueli, Rosenb., 

 has yet been found (according to Schlegel, after Von Rosenberg) — a fact 

 which my own researches affirm. 



" But whereas P. speciosus and P. rivoli indeed live together on the small 

 island of Mafoor, P. hellus, Scl., only has been found up to this time on the 

 Arfak mountains (D'Albertis and myself), and P. rivoli on the west coast of 

 New Guinea. It would be interesting to make out whether P. rivoli is 

 represented by P. hellus on the Arfak mountains, or whether they occur 

 together there (an analogous case to P. speciosus and P. rivoli on Mafoor)." 



Dr. Meyer further informs me, in a letter, that he is not able to detect 

 the slightest difference between the specimens of P. speciosus from Mafoor 

 and those from Mysore ; but he says that some of them from both localities 

 differ in the extent of the bronze-green tint on the head : there are examples 

 in which it occupies the whole head and spreads more or less to the back, 



VOL. III. 2 D 



