DIC4AIUM GEELVINKIANUM, Meyer.

Geelvink-Bay Diczeum.

Diceum geelvinkianum, Meyer, Sitzb. k. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Ixx. p. 120.
Diceum jobiense, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. vii. p. 945 (1875).

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My friend Dr. A. B. Meyer kindly submitted to me the types of the species described by him as Diceum

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veelvinkianum, and 1 have figured them on the accompanying Plate. The species was originally described

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by him from the islands of Jobi, Misori, and Mafoor, in Geelvink Bay; and the following are his remarks
on the subject :—

“From the above-mentioned islands come some forms of a Dic@um which vary slightly among them-
selves according to locality, but which I nevertheless unite for the present under the name of D. geelvinki-
anum, as they all three differ from D. pectorale, Muller and Schlegel, of the mainland, in the red colour
of the forehead, crown, and rump, though they otherwise entirely agree with this species, as well as in size.

«Examples from Mafoor, of which three males are before me, collected by myself in March 1873, and
all agreeing perfectly together, have an olive-coloured upper surface, brownish red forehead, crown, and
rump, while the breast-spot is large and fiery-red.

“Examples from Misori (of which I have three males, agreeing perfectly together, shot in March 1873)
have the upper surface more grey, the head coloured as in specimens from Mafoor, but the rump is some-
what more brilliant red ; the breast-spot is small, and of a darker red.

«Lastly, on the island of Jobi, where I obtained a male and female in April 1873, the upper surface is
somewhat shining metallic bluish, the crown, forehead, and rump are beautiful deep red, and the breast-
spot is of moderate size and of the same colour as the head and rump. The female is uniform greenish
grey above, clearer grey below, with a greenish cast, shading into yellowish white on the belly.

«The material at my disposal being all obtained at one season, I am not in a position to decide whether
these differences are constant according to locality; nevertheless I consider that they are. Should this turn
out so in the course of time, it will prove a not uninteresting example of the different variations of one and
the same type in distinct isolated districts such as islands. If one does not admit the isolation as a cause
of the difference, one is compelled to allow that the reasons for this variation are utterly unknown.”

IT have quoted Dr. Meyer’s remarks thus fully, as the nomenclature of the species is somewhat involved,
by reason of Count Salvadori having received specimens from all three of the islands visited by Dr. Meyer,
and having at once separated them as distinct species, giving the names of Diceum maforense, D. misoriense,
and D. jobiense, and saying, truly enough, that Dr. Meyer has not indicated which of the three species he
would retain as D. geelvinkianum in the event of the other two proving distinct.

As will be seen from the accompanying Plate, it is the Jobi bird which Dr. Meyer has sent me as his
Diceun geelvinkianum; and as such I have figured it, and have added Diceum jobiense of Salvadori as a
synonym. TI have little doubt that the view of the latter ornithologist is the correct one, and that there are
three distinct species confounded under the heading of D. geeleinkianum by Dr. Meyer. The figures in the
Plate represent a pair of birds, drawn of the natural size, from specimens in the Dresden Museum lent me
by Dr. Meyer. I adopt the name of geeloinkianum here, as Iam forced to do so by the fact of my Plate
having been thus lettered, and the copies printed, before I received notice of Count Salvadori’s nomenclature

for the species.