1886.] PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 295 



mens wbicli have the " third and fourth primaries edged with white." 

 He says: "1 flud, moreover, that all the birds for which I propose to 

 adopt Ramsay's uame of P. assimilis have, as a rule, the third nud fourth 

 primaries edged with white, the third for two-thirds of its length, the 

 fourth ouly near the base, but varying in extent and sometimes extend- 

 ing a good way up the edge of the feather." Except two, none of my 

 specimens show the slightest trace of white on the fourth primary (ex- 

 cept at the tip, of course), not even at the extreme base. The only 

 specimens (U. S. ^STat. Mus., Nos. 33048 and 99432) showing features 

 similar to those described by Mr. Sharpe have the middle portion of the 

 outer web very narrowly edged with white, while the base is left black; 

 but one of these specimens (No. 99432) also differs in having a similar, 

 though still narrower, white edge to the second primary (the first one is 

 narrowly edged in all of them). The tips of the primary coverts in this 

 specimen are orange red (they ranging in the series from scarlet Ver- 

 million to orange red) and altogether the birds look to me as only pre- 

 senting a slight individual variation. The next question arises as to 

 the similarly colored specimens of the British Museum, but I hardly 

 think that they can come under any other category. 



Mr. Sharpe furthermore states that his msimiUs have the primary 

 coverts all the way from pure yellow to crimson. Those with yellow 

 tips and white-edged fourth primary I should refer to affinis proper, to 

 which they apparently take the same position as does my aberrant speci- 

 meu to true and typical assimilis. 



We have, then, two forms, affinis and assimilis, the only distinguishing 

 character of which is the color of the tips of the primary coverts. But, 

 if we have to take Mr. Sharpe's word for it — and my series seems to 

 corroborate his statement — this color " varies from yellow and orange 

 to scarlet and even crimson." It seems to me unquestionable that we 

 have here proven to us ^^ intergradation'^ between these two forms, and, 

 according to the code of nomenclature of the American Ornithologists' 

 Union, the names of these two forms should therefore stand as Parda- 

 lotus affinis (or striatus) and Pardalotus affinis (or striatus) assimilis. 



Toward P. ornatus, which has all the primaries (except the second) 

 edged with white, I can see no intergradation, and hence the refer- 

 ence of assimilis to this species is quite incomprehensible to me. 



If P. ornatus must necessarily have a subspecies, such a one may 

 probably be found in P. melanocephalus. The only specimen of the 

 latter in the possession of the Kational Museum (No. 107515) shows 

 considerable tendency towai-ds the former, and may indeed be regarded 

 as somewhat iutermediate, for it has two distinct white stripes on the 

 occiput and a few white spots on the black ear-patch. At any rate, 

 P. melanocephalus and its yellow-rumped counterpart, P. xantliopygius, 

 are very closely allied to P. ornatus, and should not be separated in any 

 synopsis by the interposition of P. imnctatus and its allies. Accord- 



