261 
the Amfaima of New Caledonia. 
60. Ptilopus greyi, G. R. Gray. 
This little Dove is getting very scarce in New Caledonia 
proper; it occurs (several specimens) in the Lifu collection, 
and, we are told, is not uncommon in the Isle of Pines. We 
have it abundantly from the New Hebrides; and it is appa¬ 
rently the most widely distributed of all the Ptilopi. 
We might here mention that, having lately received Cas¬ 
sinis ^Ornithology of the U.S. Expl. Exped."* with the Atlas 
of plates, we are convinced that, misled by Drs. Finsch and 
Hartlaub^s ‘^Ornithologie,"’ we have assigned wrong habitats to 
P. fasciatus, Peale, and P. apicalis. The former is evidently 
the bird figured in the folio Atlas, pi. 31, and described from 
Samoa by Peale, whose not very exhaustive description is 
quoted entire. 
A glimpse at the plate is quite sufficient to show the bird 
indicated. The patch of colour on the belly, well described 
as purple,ii the dark orange-yellow of the patch following 
it, and of the under tail-coverts, and, above all, the bright yel¬ 
low terminations of the tail-feathers, are the chief charac¬ 
teristics of the Samoan bird, and of it alone out of the Pti¬ 
lopi found in the three groups, Navigators^, Friendly, and 
Fiji Islands; and whatever names the others must bear, the 
Samoan bird is clearly entitled to that of P. fasciatus, Peale. 
Each of the three groups of islands named possesses but one 
species of these green and grey (cinereous) Doves; and in 
determining a species special attention should be given to the 
locality which furnished the typical specimen from which the 
original description was taken. 
[On comparing a series from the different groups, and 
referring to the original descriptions, it seems clear that P. 
apicalis, Bp., must sink to a synonym of P. porphyraceus. 
Were it not for the words rectricibus apice flavis,'’^ the 
diagnosis would suit P. fasciatus almost as well. The Samoan 
species is distinguishable at a glance; but the Ptilinopi of 
Tonga and Fiji appear to me barely, if at all, separable, 
though in Fijian specimens the green of the neck and 
shoulders seems less suffused with grey than in those from 
Tonga.—II. B. T.] 
