Some Remarks concerning subspecies of Ducula aenea from Celebes and surrounding Islands

Though Schlegel (1866, p. 200) as well as Hartert (1898, p. 135) pointed out that Carpophaga paulina, described by Bonaparte (1850, p. 35) and now known as Ducula aenea paulina (Bp.), originating from the Sula Archipelago (East of the East Coast of Celebes) seemed not quite similar to birds from Celebes, lack of sufficient material refrained these authors from separating Sula birds. But this was done by Siebers (1929, p. 152/3) who separated them under the name Ducula aenea sulana, on account of their smaller wing measurements and the darker (more chestnut coloured) nuchal patch. The Sula birds should be also smaller than nuchalis from the Philippines and (doubtful) pulchella from Togian 2) which, according to Siebers, should belong to the same "Formenkreis" as paulina and sulana. Siebers compared 8 birds from Sula (1 ♂, 5 ♀ and 2 sex. inc.) in which the length of the wing varied from 208 to 216 mm with 5 specimens (3 ♂ and 2 ♀) originating from Celebes (Paloppo and Bone) having wings varying from 218 + x to 234 mm and with 7 skins (4 ♂ and 3 ♀) from Muna and Buton with wing measurements diverging from 232 to 248 mm. Besides the 20 birds studied by Siebers I could examine 18 more skins of these pigeons, viz., 3 from the Sula Islands, 2 from Pulau Peleng (island off Northeast Coast Celebes), 4 from Bumbulan (North Celebes), I from North Celebes (exact locality unknown), 1 from Kulawi (Central Celebes), 2 from Bone (South Celebes; Siebers' statement that Bone is situated in North Celebes must be a slip of the pen), 2 from South Celebes (exact locality unknown), 1 from Mara (Mare?, South Celebes) and 2 from Muna (island off the Southeast Coast Celebes). When comparing these 38 skins (31 specimens from the Buitenzorg Museum and 7 from