BAZA GURNEYIJ, Ramswy.

Gurney’s Cuckoo-Falcon.

Baza reinwardti (nec Mill. & Schl.), Tristram, Ibis, 1882, pp. 133, 141.
Baza gurney, Ramsay, Journ. Linn. Soc. xvi. p. 130 (1883).—Salvad. Orn. di Papuasia e delle Molucche, iii.
App., p. 506 (1882).—Grant, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1888, p. 188.

 

 

For a considerable time the Cuckoo-Falcon of the Solomon Islands was supposed to be specifically the
same as B. reinwardti, a species of somewhat extended distribution in Papuasia, as it occurs over the
greater part of New Guinea and Salwati, as well as in the islands of Mysol, Misori, Ceram, Amboina,
and the Ké and Aru groups. The history of the separation of the Solomon-Island bird is not very
clear, but appears to be somewhat as follows :—In 1880 Mr. E. P. Ramsay described Mr. Cockerell’s
collections from the Solomon group, and recorded an example of a Baza from “ Cape Pitt,” which
he said agreed exactly with Port-Moresby specimens. Later, in 1882, he described the species from
the Solomon Archipelago as Baza gurney?, aud he observes :—‘ When I first notified B. remwardti from
the Solomon Islands, I was under the impression I had a veritable Solomon-Island bird before me. It
now turns out that such was not the case: hence the mistake.” Mr. Ramsay omits to tell us where
the supposed ‘Cape Pitt” specimen really came from after all, and as he gives the localities for his
Baza gurneyi as “Ugi” (Rev. G. Brown) and ‘Cape Pitt” (Cockerell), it will be seen that he
has left the subject in a state of considerable uncertainty. What seems certain is that B. gurneyi is
confined to the Solomons, one of Lieut. Richards’s skins from Russell Island being now in the British
Museum (cf. Tristram, @ ¢.), and the same institution has recently received two specimens collected
by Mr. C. M. Woodford in Guadaleanar; the two last-named localities can be depended upon, as
well as that of the island of Ugi.

When writing his account of Baza reinwardti for his work on Papuan ornithology, Count Salvadori
remarks on a specimen collected by the Rev. G. Brown, but to which no locality was attached. This
specimen is in the Tweeddale collection, and agrees thoroughly with a New-Ireland specimen also
obtained by Mr. Brown and now in the British Museum, so that there can be little doubt as to the
habitat of New Ireland being correct for the first specimen, as suggested by Count Salvadori. Both
these individuals likewise agree with the specimen described and figured in the present work, which
is a male from New Britain, collected by the late Dr. Kleinschmidt. The truth is that B. gurneyi
is only an insular form of Papuan B. reinwardti, distinguished by its light under surface, broader
terminal black band to the tail, and almost pure white under wing-coverts. The birds from New Britain
and New Ireland are, again, a paler edition of B. gurneyi, with the same light under surface and white
under wing-coverts, but still further distinguished by the light grey bars of the under surface. They
are quite as worthy of a name as B. gurneyi; and as the Germans have called these islands by the title
of the Bismarck Archipelago, we will attach the name of the great Chancellor to the Cuckoo-Falcon
of that locality, as we fully believe it to be distinct. In the event of our surmise. proving correct, the
Plate of the present work must be referred to Baza bismareki.

The figure in the Plate is of the natural size and is drawn from the specimen mentioned above.

[R. B. S.J

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