PTILOPUS SOLOMONENSIS, gc

Solomon-Island Hruit-Pigeon.

ray.

Ptilonopus solomonensis, Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (4) v. p. 328 (1870).

Ptilopus solomonensis, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. ix. p. 196 (1876).
Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, iv. p.
p. 50 (1882).

Ptilopus rivolii (pt.), Elliot, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1878, p. 561.—Salvy

Ptilopus ceraseipectus, Tristr. Ibis, 1879, p. 442.—Salvad. Ibis,

Ptilopus salomonis, Salvad. Ibis, 1880, jO> US.

—Giebel, Thes. Orn. iii. p. 368.—Ramsay,
74, note (1879).—Salvad. Orn. Papuasia e delle Molucche, iii.

ad. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1879, p. 65.
1880, p. 131.—Tristr. Ibis, 1880, p. 247.

 

Tus species was at first described by the late Mr. George Robert Gray, from a specimen collected by
Mr. Brenchley in the Solomon Islands. Unfortunately the typical specimen was a female, and it was
considered by Count Salvadori and Mr. Elliot to be in all probability the hen bird of Ptilopus rivolii.
Canon Tristram having described a new Fruit-Pigeon from the Solomon Islands as P. ceraseipectus,
discovered in Makira Harbour by Captain Richards, Count Salvadori suggested that this might be the bird
described by Gray as P. solomonensis, and ou comparison of specimens Canon Tristram found that this was
the case.

 

The only difference that we can perceive between the present species and P. Johann from the Admiralty
Islands is the colour of the fore part of the head, which in the present species is rich purplish red, instead
of being lilac-colour as in P. yohannis. Count Salvadori also mentions that the breast-patches of the two

birds also vary in an equal degree; but in the specimens examined by us this has not been so strongly

 

pronounced as the variation in the colour of the heads of the two species.

The following is a description of an adult bird lent to us by Mr. E. P. Ramsay :-—

Adult male. General colour above grass-green, the scapulars having subtermival spots of purplish black ;
wing-coverts like the back; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills blackish, externally dark grass-green,
the primaries washed with dull greenish grey, the inner primaries greenish at their ends, with a conspicuous
subterminal shade of ashy grey; secondaries like the back, the outer ones with a narrow fringe of yellow ;
two centre tail-feathers green, the remainder green externally, grey at the base and near the end of the
inner web, with a broad subterminal band of blackish ; forehead rich purplish lilac, extending above each eye
and on to the lores; ear-coverts, cheeks, throat, and fore neck green, paler on the chin and upper throat ;
on the chest a broad crescentic band of bright yellow ; centre of the breast and abdomen purplish lilac ;
sides of the body and flanks green ; thighs green externally, edged with yellow internally ; oe abdomen,
vent, and under tail-coverts rich yellow; axillaries and under wing-coverts slaty grey, washed ae green ;
quills slaty grey below. Total length 8°5 inches, culmen 0°65, wing 4°79, tail 2g poe 0°85. a

Two figures are given in the Plate, representing the adult male in two positions. They are drawn from

the specimen lent to us by Mr. E. P. Ramsay. [R. B. $.]