638 



BIRDS FROM LIU KIU ISLANDS, JAPAN. 



T. permagna. In regard to the coloration of the wing the discrepancies 

 are very considerable, as will be seen from the following comparison : 



T.formoscB $. 



'Primary coverts and seconda- 

 ries black, margined -with clear 

 yellow. 



'Tertiaiiea and other coverts 

 green, some of them being 

 likewise mai-gined." — Swinh., 

 Ibis, 1863, p. 397. 



T.fortnosce cT- 



"The primary coverts with more 

 or les.s greyish black, margined 

 with yellow." 



"Outer tertials greyish black, 

 narrowlj' edged with green 

 and light yellow; the rest of 

 the tertials the color of the 

 black."— Swinh., Ibis, 1866, p. 

 312. 



T. permagna. 



Primnry coverts uniform black, 

 without liiiht edgings. Sec- 

 ondarie.s edged with yellowish. 



Tertiaries uniform olive green, 

 without light edges. Six outer 

 great secondary coverts edged 

 with yellowish. No other cov- 

 erts light edged. 



I have a strong suspicion, however, that Swinhoe has not named cor- 

 rectly the parts he described. I believe that by '■'■ prima^-y coverts'''' he 

 really meant the ^^ great secondary coverts,''^ and that, in the description 

 of the in ale, by '• outer tertials" he meant "outer secondaries." The 

 fact remains, however, that in the iemales he describes two sets of cov- 

 erts as having yellow edges, while in the bird before me only the outer 

 great coverts are colored in such a manner. 



The following is a careful descrii)tion of the type of T. permagna. 

 S (!) Napa, Okinawa Shima, March 9, 1886. Coll. Namiye. — Upper i)arts 

 dark olive-green, clearer on the rump and hoary on occiput, cheeks, 

 sides of neck, cervix, and interscapilium ; forehead, anterior part of 

 crown, and lores, like the under })arts, clear oil-green, gradually deep- 

 ening backwards to the abdomen into olive green ; middle of lower 

 abdomen and crissum of a delicate creamy crimson yellow ; feathers 

 covering tibia and sides of abdomen olive green, edged with a similar 

 yellow ; under tail-coverts, the longest of which reach beyond the tips 

 of the lateral rectrices, dark olive green, broadly (about 5"™) margined 

 with pale creamy yellow ; sides of breast, asillaries, as well as the whole 

 under side of the wing, dark slate, with a somewhat glaucous gloss 

 to the under side of remiges ; upper side of the remiges brownish 

 black, the outer webs towards the edge washed with olive green ; sec- 

 ond, third, and fourth primaries distinctly, but very narrowly, edged 

 with pale yellowish in the middle portion of the outer web ; the outer 

 webs of the sis outer secondaries similarly edged, though somewhat 

 broader and in the apical half only ; the corresponding greater coverts 

 colored exactly similarly ; tertiaries and all the other upper coverts 

 uniform olive green, with a scarcely perceptible purplish wash on the 

 smaller ones, except the primary coverts, which are uniform blackish 

 brown, without light edges; tail above olive green, the central pair of 

 tail feathers uniformly so, the rest with the inner edge slaty black 

 (about 7™"" wide) ; under side of tail slate black, each feather tipped 

 with ashy on the portion not covered by the succeeding one. In the 

 dried skin the bill is light horn-blue iu its terminal half, whitish along 

 the edges, the basal portion being horny bluish black ; feet a dull burnt 

 carmine. 



Dimens'wns : Total length, according to Mr. Namiye's measurement 

 of the fresh bird, 405™""; stretch of wings, 645™™. Wing, 211 



"""J tail- 



