In Duke-of-York Island east of New Guinea we find that the four new species figured in the “Proceedings of the Zoological Society,” for 1877, are _all_ remarkable for the unusual quantity of white in their plumage. They consist of a flycatcher, a diceum, a wood-swallow, and a ground pigeon;[47] all equalling if not surpassing their nearest allies in whiteness, although some of these, from the Philippines, Moluccas and Celebes, are sufficiently remarkable in this respect. [47] _Monarcha verticalis_, _Diceum eximium_, _Artamus insignis_, _Phlogœnas johannæ_. In the small Lord Howe’s Island we have the recently extinct white rail (_Notornis alba_), remarkably contrasting with its allies in the larger islands of New Zealand. We cannot, however, lay any stress on isolated examples of white colour, since these occur in most of the great continents; but where we find a series of species of distinct genera all differing from their continental allies in a whiter coloration, as in the Andaman Islands, Duke-of-York Island, and the West Indies, and, among butterflies, in the smaller Moluccas, the Andamans, and Madagascar, we cannot avoid the conclusion that in these insular localities some general cause is at work. There are other cases, however, in which local influences seem to favour the production or preservation of intense crimson or a very dark coloration. Thus in the Moluccas and New Guinea alone we have bright red parrots belonging to two distinct families,[48] and which therefore most probably have been independently produced or preserved by some common cause. Here, too, and in Australia we have black parrots and pigeons;[49] and it is a most curious and suggestive fact that in another insular subregion--that of Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands--these same colours reappear in the same two groups.[50] [48] _Lorius_, _Eos_ (Trichoglossidæ), _Eclectus_ (Palæornithidæ). [49] _Microglossus_, _Calyptorhynchus_, _Turacœna_. [50] _Coracopsis_, _Alectrœnas_.