COUCAL. 
that I found the type locality wrong, “ Australasia ” being given by Leach, 
whereas it was an African bird. To my astonishment I then found that from 
examination of the type Shelley had so concluded, and on p. 358 used the name 
Gentropus leucogaster for the West African species, but had neglected to remove 
it from the synonymy of the Australian bird. 
From the typical locality the black and striped forms appear to be equal in 
numbers, and the young are also dichromatic, but the black appear to.be in the 
minority. 
A series from North Queensland, Cairns to Cape York, also show black and 
striped forms in the same proportions, but these are larger birds with longer 
tails, and as they are geographically isolated form a subspecies which I have 
named 
Polophilus phasianinus yorki. Type from Cape York. 
As far as can be judged geographically Ashby’s form keatsi would be 
identical with Gould’s macrourus : his comparison reads “ differs ... in that 
the whole of the plumage is black, with the exception of the wings, which are 
normal,” simply showing it to be the black form. Therefore from the Northern 
Territory I at present recognise one subspecies 
Polophilus phasianinus macrourus Gould, and cite keatsi Ashby as synonymous. 
A good series from Melville Island suggest that the black form will later 
be the only one found there, as black birds are in a majority of five to two, 
and some of the full-grown striped specimens appear to be moulting into 
the black plumage. These have the large tail of the preceding, but are 
comparatively smaller, while the striped form is darker than the next subspecies. 
I name these 
Polophilus phasianinus melvillensis subsp. n. 
The type is a female collected on Melville Island, November 3rd, 1911. 
The North-western birds will be called 
Polophilus phasianinus mel/xnurus (Gould). 
These show the reverse, the striped form predominating, three-fourths of 
the series being in this state. Moreover, these are paler than the preceding. 
It may be noted that adults of the striped forms have pale bills, while the black 
form has a black bill. 
It is possible that other subspecies may later be recognised, as the birds 
appear to be sedentary and local. 
I have just noted that Gentropus lUiger 1811 is later than Gentropodus 
Latreille 1802-4, and it seems these are the same combination. At any rate 
Eurostopus and Eurostopodus are the same, Gould writing the latter and the 
former was proposed as the correct formation, Hartert using Eurostopus in the 
Gatalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, Vol. XVI., p. 607, 1892. 
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