Vol. xxxi.] 



60 



ViNI HENDERSONI, Sp. 11. 



Adult male and female. Appear to be most nearly allied 

 to Vint kuhli (Vigors) from the Fanning Islands, but differ in 

 many important particulars. The feathers of the occiput are 

 dark green with brighter green shaft-streaks, like those of the 

 crown, instead o£ deep purple ; the tail-feathers have the 

 terminal portion yellow tinged with greenish, and the basal 

 portion mottled with dark green on the outer web and with 

 scarlet and black, or scarlet, on the inner web, while in 

 V. kuhli they are very differently coloured. The green of 

 the neck extends on to the sides of the chest, and there is an 

 indistinct dark purple band across the upper breast, which 

 is wanting in the bird from the Fanning Islands. The tail 

 is rather more wedge-shaped than in V. kuhli, the middle 

 pair of tail-feathers being proportionately somewhat longer. 

 Iris yellow ; bill dark yellow ; feet and legs yellowish-brown. 

 Total length about 200 mm. ; wing 125 ; tail 90. 



Types in the British Museum : <$ ? • Nos. 21 & 22. 

 Henderson Island. D. R. Tait coll. 



Obs. The genus Vint has been characterized by Salvadori 

 (cf. Cat. Birds B. M. xx. p. 11, and Wytsman's e Genera 

 Avium/ Psittaci, family Loriidae, p. 2) as having the first 

 three or four primaries notched at the tip ; but this character 

 is only found in a marked degree in V. australis, from Samoa 

 and the Friendly Islands, while in V. kuhli, the type of the 

 genus, it is much less apparent, as also in the present 

 species from Henderson Island. This character appears to 

 be of specific rather than of generic value. 



It seems pretty certain that the true home of V. kuhli was 

 the Society Group, in the Islands of Tahiti, B( ra-Bora, &c, 

 where it is probably now extinct, and that it must have been 

 imported subsequently to the Fanning Group. The occur- 

 rence of the present species on Henderson Island strengthens 

 this view, and the geographical range of the genus Vini 

 would thus extend from Samoa and the Friendly Islands, 

 where V. australis occurs, to Henderson Island. The Fanning 

 Islands lie far to the north and are distant from Samoa about 

 1500 miles, and from Henderson Island about 3000 miles. 



