McAllan: Ramsay’s Solomon Islands bird types 
33 
Table 1. Names used by Ramsay in Nature in 1879 (Ramsay, 1879a) versus those he used in the Proceedings (Ramsay, 1879b) 
Name used in Nature (published 5 June 1879) 
Name in Proceedings (16 June 1879) 
Myiagra ferocyanea 
Myiagra ferro-cyanea 
Monarcha barbata 
Monarcha brodiei 
Sauloprocta cockerellii 
Sauloprocta cockerelli 
Rhissidura rufofronta 
Rhipidura rubrofrontata 
Cinnyris melanocephalus 
Cinnyris (?) dubia 
Four of the names listed in Ramsay’s letter to McCoy, 
Ptilopus alexandrae, Centropus alboviolacea, Rhipidura 
erebi and Graucalus assimilis , have no corresponding new 
name in Ramsay’s paper in Nature and are nomina nuda. 
However, Graucalus assimilis may refer to Graucalus 
pusillus described in Ramsay’s first 1879 paper in the 
Proceedings , and Ptilopus alexandrae may refer to Ptilopus 
lewisii, which Ramsay published later using material from 
Cockerell’s collection (Ramsay, 1882a,c). 
Ramsay (1881b) corrected the spelling of Rhissidura 
rufofronta to Rhipidura rubrofrontata, specifically referring 
to the Nature article. This was probably prompted by 
criticism of Ramsay’s spelling errors in a paper in The Ibis by 
Salvadori (1880) and not anticipated by Ramsay as suggested 
by Longmore (1991). In 1882, in a summary paper on the 
birds of the Solomons, Ramsay used the spelling Myiagra 
ferrocyanea and Piezorhynchus [instead of Monarchal 
brodiei as used in the Proceedings , but then used Sauloprocta 
cockerellii and Cinnyris melanocephalus as used in Nature 
(Ramsay, 1882f). Evidently Ramsay’s application of these 
names was not set in stone. 
Ramsay wrote several other papers on birds from the 
Solomon Islands at least partly based on Cockerell’s collect¬ 
ions of 1878. In 1882, Ramsay noted that eight taxa were 
described in the first 1879 Proceedings paper (Ramsay, 
1882f). He then listed another six taxa represented in 
Cockerell’s collection that were described in the intervening 
years: “ Graucalus elegans, Baza gurneyi, Asturpulchellus , 
Ptilopus lewisii , Macropygia rufrocastanea ” and “ Halcyon 
tristrami”. 
Several of Cockerell’s specimens of these taxa are types, 
though Ramsay’s use of Halcyon tristrami was an error. 
Halcyon [now = Todiramphus] chloris tristrami is now 
considered to be restricted to New Britain. It was described 
by Edgar Layard from a single specimen with the incorrect 
locality of San Cristobal [now = Makira] (Layard, 1880; 
Rothschild & Hartert, 1905; Peters, 1945). Ramsay’s separate 
error is explained through a specimen in the Australian 
Museum (0.18644) collected at Cape Pitt and labelled on 
the reverse, “var. of H. chloris?”. This specimen is evidently 
the one collected by Cockerell in 1878. According to Ramsay 
(1879b), Cockerell collected only one specimen of “Halcyon 
chloris var.”, and this came from Cape Pitt. The subspecies 
of T. chloris from the Solomons south to Guadalcanal is now 
usually given as T. c. alberti (Rothschild & Hartert, 1905), 
and is slightly smaller in size and darker above than T. c. 
tristrami from New Britain, whereas T. c. solomonis from 
San Cristobal has paler underparts than T. c. alberti and has 
a broad rufous superciliary stripe (Rothschild & Hartert, 
1905; Mayr, 1936; Peters, 1945; Fry et al, 1992; Dutson, 
2011). Thus the Cape Pitt specimen is now T. c. alberti and 
is closer in appearance to T. c. tristrami than T. c. solomonis. 
Two of the additional taxa mentioned by Ramsay in 
1882 as being represented in Cockerell’s collection were 
again described in Nature rather than the Proceedings. A 
further paper of Ramsay’s in Nature was also published 
in 1881 (Ramsay, 1881a). Even though these three later 
papers in Nature were largely based on other collections, it 
is worthwhile listing these taxa and their variant spellings 
(Table 2). 
Table 2. Ramsay’s names used in papers in Nature and the Proceedings in 1881 and 1882. 
Ramsay (1881a,b) 
Name used in Nature (21 July 1881) 
Name used in Proceedings (12 September 1881) 
Graucalus elegans 
Piezorhynchus Richardsii 
Myzomela Tristrami 
Mygomela pulcherrima 
Zoster ops (Tephrasl) olivacens 
Nasiterna finschii 
Graucalus elegans 
Piezorhynchus Richardsii 
Myzomela Tristrami 
Myzomela pulcherrima 
Tephras olivaceus 
Nasiterna Finschii 
Ramsay (1882a,d) 
Name used in Nature (19 January 1882) 
Name used in Proceedings (20 March 1882) 
Astur versicolor 
Ianthcenas philippance 
Ptilopus richardsii 
Ptilopus lewisii 
Chalcophaps mortoni 
Sternoides minor 
Plectorhyncha fulviventris 
Astur versicolor 
Ianthenas philippance 
Ptilopus Richardsi 
Ptilopus Lewisi 
Chalcophaps Mortoni 
Sturnoides minor 
Plectorhyncha (?) fulviventris 
Ramsay (1882c,e) 
Name used in Nature (9 February 1882) 
Name used in Proceedings (20 March 1882) 
Halcyon salmonis 
Rhipidura tenebrosa 
Halcyon solomonis 
Rhipidura tenebrosa 
