CARPOPHAGA SUB FLAVESCENS Finsch.

Yellow-tinted White F'ruit-Pigeon.

Carpophaga subflavescens, Finsch, Ibis, 1886, p. 2.

In the great group of Fruit-Pigeons the lovely white species, of

which one is now figured, are some of the
a distinct genus Myristicivora, which is rec
some of the best authorities. For our own part, we consider them to be

‘ © VU ave yee separ: > 1 Q
most prominent, and they have been separated into ognized by

true Carpophage in form, though
subgeneric separation.

rank all the white Fruit-Pigeons as belonging to one single
mstead of recognizing three ; and in 1875 we ourselves came

of a distinct type of coloration, which may at least be deemed worthy of

The late Professor Schlegel used to species,
to a similar conclusion, as, although we could
melanura had been separated from C, bicolor,
any of them, and, as species, they appeared to
range into one another. Count Salvadori, however, has solved the problem.

Gearly perceive the characters on which C. spilorrhoa and C.
yet there seemed to be no definite geographical habitat for
Tn the Moluceas he restricts
the range of C. melanura (as far as at present known) to Halmahéra, Bourou, and Little Ke, while C. spilorrhoa
is found all over New Guinea, the islands of the Bay of Geelvink, and the Aru group. ‘These are resident
im the above-named localities; and although C. dicolur, the common Indo-Malayan species, is also found
im Halmahéra, New Guinea, and the Ké and Aru Islands, it is doubtless as a migrant. The present species
Was discovered by Dr. Otto Finsch during his explorations in the Western Pacific. He states that he pro-
cured a pair in the north-west corner of New Ireland, where, however, it was not common.

The following is a description of the typical specimen, which is now in the British Museum :—

Adult female. General colour above and below white, everywhere strongly tinted with yellow; region of
the eye white; all the wing-coverts and the innermost secondaries white, strongly washed with yellow ;
bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills black, slightly shaded externally with grey ; upper to covenis and
basal half of tail white tinged with yellow, the terminal half of the tail black, which decreases in extent
towards the outermost feathers ; under tail-coverts white, very strongly tinged with yellow, and having a
broad black band at the end of each feather ; under wing-coverts and axillaries white washed with yellow :
eiris dark brown ; bill greenish, with the tips yellow; feet plumbeous” (0. LC) eee
inches, culmen 1-2, wing 9:0, tail 4°7, tarsus 1°30. .

The figure in the Plate represents an adult bird of the size of life. IR. B.S

 

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