THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Ingram s description reads : “ Differs from 8. salvadorii Sharpe in having 
the grey of the throat flecked or faintly streaked with white, especially 
on the sides of the neck, below the auriculars, these parts being of a uniform 
and somewhat darker grey in the typical bird. The back is of a slightly 
greyer green, and the yellow on the under -surface is conspicuously paler and 
more extensive, there being much less green on the upper-breast. In this 
species three, instead of four, of the outer tail-feathers are marked with 
white. The measurements are similar to those of 8. salvadorii .” 
One of my first impressions of these two birds was that they might be wild 
hybrids between 8. vieilloti and 8. flaviventris and this may be really worth 
consideration. In that case the locality could be accepted and the difficulty is 
their mimicry of the New Guinea species. The two birds from this point of 
view show some differences which may assist to a conclusion. 
Above all have black heads, the two “ stalkeri ” have greenish backs not so 
pure as in flaviventris but much clearer than in vieilloti ; they both have grey 
collars on the hind-neck but of varying extent, in this agreeing with vieilloti but 
not as pronounced, while of course flaviventris has no grey collar ; the feathers 
on the back of one specimen show pale yellowish tips, not on the other ; both 
the “ stalkeri ” have grey throats flecked with white, succeeded in one specimen 
by a greenish band across the chest, the greenish showing on the flanks, the 
feathers with yellowish tips showing somewhat irregularly ; the centre of the 
abdomen is very pale yellowish-white ; the under tail-coverts white ; in the 
other specimen the greenish band is missing, a few greenish feathers with 
yellowish tips erratically occurring, the centre of the breast being pale 
yellowish, fading into white on the abdomen and under tail-coverts white ; 
the individual feathers of the sides are mixed greenish and yellow ; the tail 
coloration is also irregular : that of 8. vieilloti agrees very closely with that 
of 8. flaviventris and the two “ stalkeri ” disagree with both and with 
each other. In one specimen the outer web of the second feather from 
the outside is white for most of its length and the outside web of the third 
from the outside for about one-third ; in the other the same state is seen in 
the second, but the third feather shows only a white tip exactly as seen in 
8. vieilloti ; in neither 8. vieilloti nor 8. flaviventris has the second feather 
from the outside a white outer web. As indicated by Ingram the species 
8. salvadorii Sharpe has the four outer tail-feathers marked with white. 
A further examination suggests that these may represent a plumage change 
of the northern form, and that 8. salvadorii Sharpe is simply the New Guinea 
representative of the southern species 8. vieilloti. This would account for the 
variation in plumage also, but no finality can be achieved until a long series is 
collected showing all the plumage changes. 
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