26 COLLECTIONS FROM MELANESIA. 



b. 2 imm. Port Molle, May 1881. Legs and feet greenish grey. 



c. $ juv. Port Molle, May 1881. Legs and feet red ; bill black. 



d. PuU. Thursday Island, July 1881. Bill, legs, and feet black ; 



iris brown. 

 «. S juv. Prince of "Wales Island, Aug. 1881. Iris reddish orange; 



bill greenish black ; legs and feet olive-brown. 

 /. c? ad. Booby Island, Aug. 1881. Soft parts as in preceding. 

 g. cJ juv. Booby Island, Aug. 1881. Legs and feet greenish grey. 



The very interesting series collected by Dr. Coppinger ranges from 

 the tiny nestling to the fuUy adult bird. The age of a specimen is 

 easily determined by its under tail-coverts, which are yellow in the 

 immature birds and deepen into rich orange in the adult ones. It 

 will be noticed that young birds were found, both in May and 

 August, just beginning to put on the bright plumage of the breast ; 

 those killed in August are getting the rose-coloured crown. This 

 either shows that the breeding-times are not identical in Torres 

 Straits and at Port Molle, or that more than one brood is reared in 

 the year. 



60. Megapodius duperreyi, Less. 



Oustalet, Bihl. Hautes Etudes, xxii. p. 17 (1881). 

 Megapodius assimilis, Masters ; Ramsay, t. c. p. 196. 



a. 5 . Prince of Wales Island, Torres Straits, Aug. 1881. Bill 

 reddish brown, with yellow edges ; legs bright orange ; iris 

 light reddish brown ; scales of toes dark reddish brown. 



h. 6. Booby Island, Aug. 1881. Iris dark brown. 



M. Oustalet, who has recently written a monograph of the Mega- 

 podes, unites M. tumulus of Australia and M. assimilis of Masters 

 with the well-known M. duperreyi ; and on looking over the series 

 in the British Museum, I confess that his opinion seems to be well 

 founded. 



61. RaUus pMUppensis, L. 



Hypotsenidia pMlippensis, Ramsay, t. c. p. 199. 

 a. S- Channel Eock, June 1881. Iris red. 



62. Porphyrio melanonotus, Temm. 

 Ramsay, t. t). p. 199. 



a. 2 ■ Booby Island, Aug. 1881. Iris bright orange-red. 



63. JBsacus magnirostris (Geoffr.). 

 Ramsay, t. c. p. 196. 



a. $ . Port Molle, Queesland. 



