288 
KTNGHORN, Notes on Two Pigeons 
r The Emu 
L April 
(Ibis, V., p. 592, 1905) stated that he received several specimens 
from that locality. 
In the same work for 1907, Scott B. Wilson recorded the 
species from Raratonga, adding that the crops of the Pigeons 
were full of banyan seed. He suggested that they were likely 
to become extinct at an early date, as they were highly prized 
as a food, which fact, together with natural elements, was ac¬ 
counting for a rapid decrease in their numbers. 
An Australian Record 
As stated before, Globicera pacifica was found to occur in the 
south-east of New Guinea, which is not far from Cape Vork, 
and so in the natural course of events, ornithologists would be 
entitled to the opinion that it would not be long before such a 
bird would be found in the dense tropical forests of North 
Queensland. 
It was in 1919 that Mathews in his Birds of Australia, VII., 
]>. 414, pi. 366, 1919, recorded and figured a specimen from 
Mackay, Queensland, which appeared to be Globicera pacifica. 
He purchased it from a collector, but considered it to be an 
alien; the collector, however, assured him that it was shot near 
Mackay. As the collector had nothing to gain by inventing a 
locality, Mathews accepted his word. On examining the bird he 
found that it differed slightly from the typical form; one 
character being that it had a red cere, while G. pacifica had a 
black one. He straightway communicated with Dr. Witmer 
Stone, of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, suggesting that 
the bird might be identical with Cassin’s type of Carpophaga 
lepida , a bird which was purchased in Europe, but labelled 
“North Australia.” Stone, who was able to examine the type in 
question, commented that Cassin’s bird had been correctly placed 
by Salvadori as a synonym of G. rubricera, Bonaparte. As 
Mathews’ specimen was quite distinct from the latter species, 
and as it differed slightly from the typical G. pacifica, he made 
a new sub-species, and called it Globicera pacifica queenslandica. 
There is a most interesting specimen in the Australian Museum 
Collection, from Funafuti, and it agrees absolutely with Ogilvie- 
Grant’s description of G . farquhari; and, but for a black cere, 
with Mathews’ G. pacifica queenslandica. 
In view of the above, it is with great diffidence that I suggest 
that the colour of the cere may differ with the sex, season, or 
age, and, as it is evidently the only definite distinguishing char¬ 
acter between the birds, examination of the types with a series 
of specimens, might prove them to be identical and the names 
to be synonymous. 
The foregoing short history, together with the facts that 
Ramsay and Macgillivray each recorded several specimens from 
islands within easy reach of Australia, and that Mathews re¬ 
corded one from the mainland (though this latter is often con¬ 
sidered doubtful) leads me to conclude by saying that l see 
no reason why the bird should not be rediscovered in some of the 
