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

;26 COLLECTIONS FROM MELANESIA.b. 5 imm. Port MoUe, May 1881. Legs and feet greenish grey.c. 2 juv. Port Molle, May 1881. Legs and feet red; bill black.d. Pull. Thursday Island, July 1881. Bill, legs, and feet blackiris brown.e. S j^iv. Prince of Wales Island, Aug. 1881. Iris reddish orange;bill greenish black ; legs and feet olive-brown./. S ad. Booby Island, Aug. 1881. Soft parts as in preceding.g. 6 juv. Booby Island, Aug. 1881. Legs and feet greenish grey.The very interesting series collected by Dr. Coppinger ranges fromthe tiny nestling to the fully adult bird. The age of a specimen iseasily determined by its under tail-coverts, which are yellow in theimmature birds and deepen into rich orange in the adult ones. Itwill be noticed that young birds were found, both in May andAugust, just beginning to put on the bright plumage of the breastthose killed in August are getting the rose-coloured crown. Thiseither shows that the breeding-times are not identical in TorresStraits and at Port Molle, or that more than one brood is reared inthe year.60. Megapodius duperreyi, Less.Oustalet, Bibl. Haiites Ehccles, xxii. p. 17 (1881).Megapodius assimilis, Masters ; Ramsay, t. c, p. 196.a. 5. Prince of Wales Island, Torres Straits, Aug. 1881. Billreddish brown, with yellow edges ; legs bright orange ; irislight reddish brown ; scales of toes dark reddish brown.h.