24 THE BIRDS OF THE FIJI ISLANDS. 



Taviuni, to see it " preening its feathers, and shaking itself together/' and to 

 hear the cock '' cluck to his green wife in their cool retreat." 



Dr. Otto Finsch writes thus concerning Chrysoena victor (P. Z. S. 1873, 

 p. 733) : - 



" I beg leave to remark that Dr. Gr'afFe (as already stated, P. Z. S. 1871, 

 p. 643) was the first who mentioned the existence of this conspicuously 

 coloured Dove, saying (J. f. Orn. 1870, p. 418) : ' In Lanthalu, einer Insel 

 nahe bei Taviuni, kommt eine hochst eigenthiimliche Chryscena-Art mit ganz 

 mennigerothem Gefieder vor, von welcher ich ein Exemplar, in einem K'afig 

 gehalten, in Levuka sah, aber leider nicht erhalten konnte, da es der Liebling 

 einer englischen Dame war.' Dr. Gr'affe's ' Lanthalu ' seems to be 

 synonymous with the small island east of Oamea named ' Laucala ' on 

 Stieler's 'Hand-Atlas' (No. 51), and very close to the isle of Vuna, or 

 Taviuni, from which my specimens were obtained. Ihese were labelled, in 

 the collector's handwTiting, ' Waup Doves ; top of mountains, Taviuni : feed 

 on berries.' 



" As regards the generic position of this singular Dove, I may add that 

 it is undoubtedly a member of the genus Chrysoena, which, as we (Finsch & 

 Hartl. Orn. Centr.-Polyn. p. 134, note) have already shown, is distinguishable 

 from Ptilinopus, not merely by the pecuhar and unique structure of the 

 feathers in Chr, luteovirens, but chiefly in having no shortened and narrowly 

 pointed first quill, which is so characteristic of the genus Ptilinopus. Chr. 

 victor, as well as the Chr. luteovirens, has the first primary long, without 

 emargination, and equal to the seventh, a short tail which is covered by the 

 elongated tail-coverts ; and the tarsi are not feathered to the toes as in 

 Ptilinopus, but only at its base. Although Chr. victor does show the extra- 

 ordinary structure of feathers seen in Chr. luteovirens, its plumage exhibits 

 also a singular structure in respect of the length and laxity of the radii, 

 which resemble mostly those in the genus Cory His QLoriculus^." 



The pecuharity of the feathers which Dr. Finsch above, speaking of the 



