Report on the zoological collections made in the Indo-Pacific Ocean ...

—;11BIRDS.BTR. BOWDLER SHARPE.The birds were obtained in the islands of Torres Straits, at PortMoUe and Port Curtis in Queensland, and at Port Darwin in NorthwesternAustralia. In the following notes the references to otherworks have been limited to the ' Catalogue of Birds in the BritishMuseum,' as far as this work is published, and to Mr. Ramsay'suseful list of Australian birds (Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. vol. ii.pp. 177-203), where the best illustration of their geographicaldistribution is to be found.1. Cerchneis cenchroides (V. ^ IT.).Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. i. p. 431.Tinnunculus cenchroides, Bamsay, Pr. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. ii. p. 177.a. Port Denison, May 1881.2. Ninox peninsularis, Salvad.a. 5 Thursday Island, Torres Straits. Bill yellow with black•tip ; feet and iris yellow.The British Museum contains a good series of this apparentlywell-marked species, which differs from Niuox connivens by therufous streaks on the lower parts. The following is a descriptionof Dr. Coppinger's specimen :Adah female. General colour above dull sooty brown, darker onthe head, which is blackish brown, forming a tolerably distinct cap ;scapulars brown like the back, with large white markings on theouter web, forming a continuous white line on each side of theback; wing-coverts almost entirely uniform, with only here andthere a spot of white, a little plainer on the outer web of the medianand greater coverts, the latter of which are washed with pale rufous ;bastard-wing feathers and primary-coverts uniform sooty brownquills dark brown, barred on both webs with lighter brown, takingthe form of whity-brown notches on the outer web ; inner secondai'iesspotted with white on the outer and barred witli white ontheir inner webs ; lower back and rump sooty brown, with more orless concealed spots of white ; upper tail-coverts deep brown ; tailfeathersdark brown, plainly though narrowly barred and tippedwith whity brown, these light bars being eight in number besidesthe terminal one ; lores, base of forehead, and plumes over the eye