EASTERN COMB-CRESTED JACANA. 
I am at the present time attaching the Melville Island form to the 
North-west Australian subspecies, but longer series from the latter locality will, 
I have no doubt, confirm my judgment in separating the Island form. 
It is interesting to record the peculiar intervention of the New Guinea race 
between the Celebes bird and the New South Wales bird. It is so different 
that it might almost be regarded as specifically distinct were it contrasted with 
the Celebes or New South Wales birds alone. The Celebes birds differ from 
the East Australian birds in having a noticeably broader black patch across 
the breast with a deeper blue-black sheen ; in the blue-black of the neck 
extending on to the upper-back ; the wing-coverts and middle back-feathers 
are dark oil-green, the upper tail-coverts and rump-feathers are deeper blue- 
black, and the tail is dark oil-green black, not bronze-black. /. g. novce-guinece 
has the blue-black extending right on to the back, so that the whole upper- 
surface is almost uniformly black ; wherever bronze coloration occurs in the 
Australian bird, the New Guinea bird shows deep oil-green, a difference which 
must be seen to be understood. No confusion is possible with New Guinea 
and Australian birds, though the Celebes birds have to be carefully com- 
pared with the latter, the different coloration of the tail being a good 
character for separation. 
The birds described were collected near Rockhampton, Queensland. 
\ 
\ 
VOL. m 
317 
