We present an analysis of the ENEAR sample of peculiar velocities of field and cluster elliptical galaxies , obtained with D _ { n } – \sigma distances .
We use the velocity correlation function , \psi _ { 1 } ( r ) , to analyze the statistics of the field–object ’ s velocities , while the analysis of the cluster data is based on the estimate of their r.m.s .
peculiar velocity , V _ { rms } .
The results are compared with predictions from cosmological models using linear theory .
The statistics of the model velocity field is parameterized by the amplitude , \eta _ { 8 } = \sigma _ { 8 } \Omega _ { m } ^ { 0.6 } , and by the shape parameter , \Gamma , of the CDM–like power spectrum .
This analysis is performed in redshift space , so as to circumvent the need to address corrections due to inhomogeneous Malmquist bias and to the redshift cutoff adopted in the sample selection .
From the velocity correlation statistics we obtain \eta _ { 8 } = 0.51 ^ { +0.24 } _ { -0.09 } for \Gamma = 0.25 at the 2 \sigma level for one interesting fitting parameter .
This result agrees with that obtained from a similar analysis of the SFI I-band Tully–Fisher ( TF ) survey of field Sc galaxies .
Even though less constraining , a consistent result is obtained by comparing the measured V _ { rms } of clusters to linear theory predictions .
For \Gamma = 0.25 we find \eta _ { 8 } = 0.63 _ { -0.19 } ^ { +0.22 } at 1 \sigma .
Again , this result agrees , within the uncertainties , with that obtained from the SCI cluster sample based on TF distances .
Overall , our results point toward a statistical concordance of the cosmic flows traced by spirals and early-type galaxies , with galaxy distances estimated using TF and D _ { n } – \sigma distance indicators , respectively .

Subject headings : Cosmology : observations – cosmology : theory – galaxies : distances and redshifts – large-scale structure of universe .