23StP. NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE. Vol. XII. SEPTEMBER, 1905. No. 2. FURTHER CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR KNOWLEDGE OE THE ORNIS OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS. BY THE HON. WALTER ROTHSCHILD, Ph.D., and Dr. ERNST HARTERT. (Plate X.) IN Xov. Zool. viii., 1901, pp. 170-89, 373-8:.', we have discussed the birds of the islands Kuhimbaiigra, Florida, aud Giiadalcanar ; in vuL i.\., 1902, pp. 581-94, we wrote about those from Isabel (Bugotu) and Treasury Island. The indefatigable collector Mr. Albert S. Meek has recentl}' returned to the Suloiuon Archipelago, and has succeeded in making very valuable collections on Ueiidova, Gizo, New Georgia, Choiseul, and Bougainville, notwithstanding the bad climate and the notorious ferocity of the natives. The birds collected by Mr. Meek are of course of the highest interest, because our knowledge of the birds of liendova aud New Georgia was imperfect, and of those of Gizo, Choiseul, aud Bougainville we knew heretofore nothing. It is true that Dr. Julius von Madarasz, in Termcs-zetrajzi Fiizetek xxv., 1902, pp. 350-51, described nine species as coming from Bougainville, but we have shown {Annale.'i Mm. Sat. HuiKjar. i., 1903, pp. 447-50) that these did not come from Bougainville, but from German New (iuinea. Needles.s to say that the large collection received from Jlr. Meek fully bears out our conclusions, I.e. The number of remarkable new species in the collect ion from the northern islands is surprisingly small. This is, however, explained by the fact that the ornis of Bougainville, Choiseul, and Isabel is, on the whole, the same. Moreover, Mr. Meek was of course not able to penetrate far into the interior, but had to restrict his collecting to the coastal portions of the islands. There can be no doubt whatever that the mountains in the interior of these islands, and especially those of Bougainville, are still inhabited by unknown, ditfereutiated forms, although Meek's collections give a splendid idea of the zoogeographical relations of these islands. A few startling, wonderful discoveries were also made : the remarkable new l)igeon Microyonra meehi, the gaudy Ihdcijon boayainrilliji, and I he sombre Corras meeki, while in other groups highly interesting new subspecies were discovered, as, for examjde, in the genera .Uliu\ Pitta, and Graucaltis. The collection shows the following interesting facts : — ]. The ornis of the ishui<ls of the nortluirn chain — i.r. (ho three islands of Bougainville, Choiseul aud Isaljcl— i.s generally alike ; only in comparatively few cases representative subspecies are found on the various islands of the northern chain. 17
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