(210) 



DESCEIPTION OF TWO NEW BIHDS FROM THE TIMOR 

 GROUP OF ISLANDS. 



By C. B. HELLMAYR. 



Dicaeum hanieli sp. nov. 



cJ ad. Head above, back, npper wing- and tail-coverts black, strongly glossed 

 with metallic bine; qnills blackish, e.xteriorly edged with steel blue; rectrices 

 metallic bhiish black. Sides of the head sooty black ; cliin, tliroat, and foreueck 

 creamy white ; chest bright scarlit, the basal portion of the feathers wliite ; 

 remainder of under parts creamy white, a narrow blackish stripe along the middle 

 of the breast; axillaries and nnder wing-coverts snowy white; qnills with a narrow, 

 whitish margin along inner web. " Iris dark brown, feet and bill black." Wing 

 56A ; tail 3ii ; bill 9 ; tarsns 14 mm. 



Tijpe in the Zoological Mnsenm, Mnnich, No. 11. 2422, S ad. Bonleo, 

 Timor, 3UU0 ft., June 8, 1911. Collected by C. B. Haniel, Esq., No. 233. 



Ohs. This new Flower-picker, of which unfortunately bat a single adult 

 male was obtained in the mountainous interior of the island of Timor, appears 

 to be most nearly allied to D. sanguinolentum Temra., from Java. It differs, 

 however, by its much larger size,* quite differently shaped bill, and several colour- 

 characters. The upper parts are glossed with metallic blue instead of bright 

 purplish blue; the throat and foreneck as well as the belly are pale creamy white 

 instead of deep buffy yellow ; the red of the chest is less extended, and of a clearer, 

 more scarlet tinge ; the blackish stripe in the middle of the breast much more 

 restricted, also duller in hue ; the dark slaty olive colour of the flanks, so con- 

 spicuous a feature in D. sanyuinolenttim, is altogetlier absent in the new bird. 

 In the Javan species the malar region and sides of the throat arc sooty black 

 like the ear coverts, and the middle of the tliroat only is deep bufl'y yellow, whereas 

 D. hanieli has the whole throat as well as the foreneck clear creamy white. The 

 most striking diflfereuce, however, consists of the shape of the bill. While 

 D. sanguinolentum is characterised by an e.xtremely compressed, slender bill (width 

 at base scarcely exceeding 2 to '2\ mm.), the Timor-bird, in that resjiect, rather 

 resembles the well-known D. macldoti, having a thick, blunt beak, which is fully 

 4 mm. broad at the nostrils, and gradually narrows on its terminal portion, without 

 ending, however, in an acute tij), as is invariably the case in its western ally. 

 The legs and feet, too, are mnch stronger in tlie new bird, the tarsus being both 

 longer and thicker. f 



• In eight males of D. sanguinolentum the length ot the whig varies from J7 to 50, that of the tail 

 from 25 to 2H mm. 



f This very interesting new species, though agreeing with Dicofttm. sanguinolfntuin of Java in the 

 absence of red on the upper tail-coverts and rump, is reall.v more allied to the group of />. mackh'ti and 

 its various subspecies, as it agrees with them in the heavy bill and general coloration, but it cliffers from 

 all these forms in having the upper tad-coverts and lower rump uniform blue-black, like the entire 

 upperside, and in the entirely creamy white throat. — E. Hautekt. 



