506 
Letters, Announcements, tyc. 
P. flavifrons, or an inhabitant of another group of islands. 
So far as we know, it is not found either in Samoa, Tonga, 
or Fiji. 
Mr. Whitmee identifies the Samoan ee Green Dove ” as 
Ptilinopus fasciatus, Peale, and regards P. apicalis, Bp., as a 
synonym of P. perousii, Peale. Herein I think he is mis¬ 
taken ; and I think, by this time, having received P. fas¬ 
ciatus sent from here, he will now agree with me. P. fas¬ 
ciatus, though closely resembling P. apicalis, differs essen¬ 
tially from it, as I have pointed out in a paper recently trans¬ 
mitted to the Zoological Society, and does not, I feel sure, 
extend its range to Samoa, though Drs. Finsch and Hartlaub 
include it in their list of Samoan birds. I fear their authority, 
Dr. Graffe, was not, from all I hear, sufficiently careful in 
recording the habitats of the species he collected; for orni¬ 
thology had by no means a first claim on his attention. 
The Samoan bird agrees with Bonaparte’s curt description 
of P. apicalis, as given by Finsch and Hartlaub, as far as it 
goes; but then whose description is this ? In the illustrated 
catalogue of the Museum Godeffroy, which I saw in Samoa, the 
Samoan bird is figured with the name of P. fasciatus, Peale. 
Now, Mr. Editor, my Fijian-killed specimens are in the 
hands of Lord Walden and others; and Mr. Whitmee’s Samoan 
birds are in Canon Tristram’s care; I doubt not original de¬ 
scriptions are accessible to you : will you help us wanderers 
and sojourners in “ foreign parts ” to “ unravel the tangled 
skein of our doubts.” 
Yours &c., 
E. L. La yard. 
P.S. There is no question that Lobiospiza notabilis, F. & H., 
is the young of Erythrura cyanovirens, Peale. The same 
peculiarities characterize the young of our Fijian E. pealii, 
Hartl. 
Sir, — I have just received for inspection from Count Turati 
a bird which, on the original label of the unknown collector, 
bears written, “ Tat are viridis ? , Yiti Levu, Aug. 15.” 
