


266 Ona Collection of Birds from the New Hebrides. 
I have on the table four Samoan specimens. Their mea- 
surements run all slightly smaller than those of P. indicus ; and 
besides they have not the suffused blue on the back, which is 
black-brown instead of blue-black. The Samoan bird is, I 
think, distinct from the P. indicus. Whether it be distinct 
from P. vitiensis, Peale, I cannot say, not having a specimen 
from the Fijis. Peale distinctly states that P. vitiensis 1s 
much smaller than the Samoan bird; and he gives measure- 
ments which accord pretty nearly with my Samoan specimens. 
Probably, then, Mr. Whitmee is correct in his conjecture that 
his bird is P. vitiensis (Ibis, 1875, p. 446); but it is, perhaps, 
a little larger. My solution of the confusion is that Cassin 
got hold of a specimen of the species I am now describing, 
which was erroneously marked as from Samoa, and identified 
it as P. indicus, the real Samoan bird being very close to 
that species. 
The New- Hebrides bird is halfway between P. indicus and 
the large P. melanotus of Australia and New Zealand, both 
in size and coloration. : | 
Mr. Inglis writes of its habits that it lives inland, and eats 
taro and sugar-cane (as Mr. Layard says of the Fiji bird). 
It is known to the natives as “ In-nga.” 
25. ANnovus stotipvus, L. 
From Aneiteum. Native name “ Ketipup.” 
26. Gy@is CANDIDA, Sparrm. 
From Aniwa. 
27. PHAETON RUBRICAUDA, Bodd. 
From Aneiteum, where its tail-feathers are much prized 
by the natives, who call it “ Intoneg.” 
Besides these, there are memoranda in Mr. Inglis’s letter 
of three other species of birds which have perished in transit. 
There are also several nests bearing numbers corresponding 
to those of birds which have perished. One is probably the 
nest of the Rhipidura, a very fine Flycatcher-structure resting 
on two horizontal branches. Another I can only refer to My- 
zomela. Itis exceedingly fine, compact, and tough, of a con- 
sistency between a Humming-bird’s and a Tree-wasp’s nest. 

