Vol. xii] 24 



Mr. Ernst Hartert exhibited and described examples of 

 the following apparently new species of birds : — 



PODARGUS INEXPECTATUS, n. Sp. 



($ . Upperside brown, very finely vermiculated, darker on 

 the rump and head, merging into whitish grey on the 

 scapulars ; wing-coverts with a number of large, roundish, 

 very conspicuous white spots; quills deep brown, with burl' 

 bars across the outer, and part of the inner, webs; tail with 

 very obvious bars ; under surface of a vermiculated irregularly 

 transversely mottled brown colour, spotted with black near 

 the tips of the feathers, but with white spots only in the 

 centre of the breast and on the chin. 



? . Rufous, but similarly marked to the male. Wing- 

 coverts very deep rufous brown, the roundish white apical 

 spots being therefore very conspicuous. Wing, $ 220, 

 S <$ 235, 221 ; tail, ? 178, <J <J 188, 192 ; width of bill at 

 gape, ? 52, J $ 56, 58 mm. " Iris yellowish brown, feet 

 light pale yellow, bill turkey-umber." 



Hob. Isabel Island, Solomon Islands, June 1901. 



One female and two males sent by A. S. Meek. 



Obs. This species, belonging to a genus which is quite new to 

 the Solomon Archipelago, is of all the known forms evidently 

 nearest to Podargus intermedins, Hart., from the D'Entre- 

 casteaux Islands, but differs in having the white apical spots 

 to the wing-coverts much rounder in shape, the males being 

 darker and having much less white on the under surface, and 

 no distinct crescents of blackish-brown patches on the sides 

 of the throat and chest. The upper surface is more uniform, 

 the tail much more distinctly cross- barred than is usual in 

 P. intermedins. The upper wing-coverts are very dark, the 

 under wing-coverts less uniform and more sharply spotted. 

 The bill is somewhat broader, as a rule. From Podargus 

 meeki and P. ocellatus the new species is distinguished at a 

 glance by its much larger size, while it is much smaller than 

 P. papuensis and P. strigoides, and altogether differently 

 marked from P. pha/anoides. 



