DICfEUM GEELVINKI ANUM, Meytr. 
Geelvink-Bay Dicgeum. 
Dicceum geelvinlciamm, Meyer, Sitzb. k. Akad. Wiss. Wien, lxx. p. 120. 
Dicceum jobiense, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov, vii. p. 945 (1875). 
My friend Dr. A. B. Meyer kindly submitted to me the types of the species described by him as Dicceum 
geehinkianum, and I have figured them on the accompanying Plate. The species was originally described 
by him from the islands of Jobi, Misori, and Mafoor, in Geelvink Bay; and the following are his remarks 
on the subject : — 
“ From the above-mentioned islands come some forms of a Dicceum which vary slightly among them- 
selves according to locality, but which I nevertheless unite for the present under the name of I). geehinki- 
anum, as they all three differ from D. pectorale , Muller and Schlegel, of the mainland, in the red colour 
of the forehead, crown, and rump, though they otherwise entirely agree with this species, as well as in size. 
“Examples from Mafoor, of which three males are before me, collected by myself in March 1873, and 
all agreeing perfectly together, have an olive-coloured upper surface, brownish red forehead, crown, and 
rump, while the breast-spot is large and fiery-red. 
“Examples from Misori (of which I have three males, agreeing perfectly together, shot in March 1873) 
have the upper surface more grey, the head coloured as in specimens from Mafoor, but the rump is some- 
what more brilliant red ; the breast-spot is small, and of a darker red. 
“Lastly, on the island of Jobi, where I obtained a male and female in April 1873, the upper surface is 
somewhat shining metallic bluish, the crown, forehead, and rump are beautiful deep red, and the breast- 
spot is of moderate size and of the same colour as the head and rump. The female is uniform greenish 
grey above, clearer grey below, with a greenish cast, shading into yellowish white on the belly. 
“The material at my disposal being all obtained at one season, I am not in a position to decide whether 
these differences are constant according to locality; nevertheless I consider that they are. Should this turn 
out so in the course of time, it will prove a not uninteresting example of the different variations of one and 
the same type in distinct isolated districts such as islands. If one does not admit the isolation as a cause 
of the difference, one is compelled to allow that the reasons for this variation are utterly unknown.” 
I have quoted Dr. Meyer’s remarks thus fully, as the nomenclature of the species is somewhat involved, 
by reason of Count Salvadori having received specimens from all three of the islands visited by Dr. Meyer, 
and having at once separated them as distinct species, giving the names of Dicceum maforense, D. misoriense, 
and D. jobieme, and saying, truly enough, that Dr. Meyer has not indicated which of the three species he 
would retain as D. geehinkianum in the event of the other two proving distinct. 
As will be seen from the accompanying Plate, it is the Jobi bird which Dr. Meyer has sent me as his 
Dicceum geehinkianum ; and as such I have figured it, and have added Dicceum jobieme of Salvadori as a 
synonym. I have little doubt that the view of the latter ornithologist is the correct one, and that there are 
three distinct species confounded under the heading of D. geehinkianum by Dr. Meyer. The figures in the 
Plate represent a pair of birds, drawn of the natural size, from specimens in the Dresden Museum lent me 
by Dr. Meyer. I adopt the name of geehinkianum here, as I am forced to do so by the fact of my Plate 
having been thus lettered, and the copies printed, before I received notice of Count Salvadori’s nomenclature 
for the species. 
