8. I'llOSTHlOMADEUA. 257 



and neck, especially the crown, strongly washed with metallic purple ; 

 bill black ; feet brown ; iris golden yellow. Culmen 0-9 inch, wing 

 4-2, tail 4-6, tarsus 1-5. 

 Hab. Chatham Islands. 



a. tS ad. sk. Chatham Islands. New Zealand Co. [P.]. 



(Type of species.) 



8. PROSTHEMADERA. 



Type. 

 Prosthemadeia, Gray, Li.it of Genera of Birds, p. 3 

 (1840) P. novae zealandise. 



Bill slightly longer than rest of head ; culmeu curved ; operculum 

 partly covered with feathers. First primary longer than half the 

 second. Tip of wing formed by primaries 4, 5, 6. Tail slightly 

 rounded and, like the secondaries, equalling five sixths of the wing 

 in length. Tarsus comparatively short, scutellated in front. Plumage 

 black, glossy, peculiar. Length of wing 5-6 inches. 



Mange. New Zealand. 



1. Prosthemadera novaB zealandiae. 



New Zealand Creeper, Broivn, Ilhisir. Zcol. pi. ix. (1776). 

 Poe Bee-cater, Lath. Gen. Syn. ii. p. 682 (1782). 

 Merops novae seelaiidi;c, Gm. S. N. i. p. 464 (1788). 

 Merops circinnatus. Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 275 (1790). 

 La Ciavate frisee, Lcvaill. Ois. d^Afr. ii. pi. 92 (1800). 

 Sturnus crispicollis, Daud. Traite (VOrn. ii. p. .314 (1800). 

 Philemon circinnatus, Bonn, et Vieill. Enc. Meth. p. 61.3 (1823). 

 Prosthemadera coucinuata, Gray, List Gen. B. p. 3 (1840). 

 Certhia circinnata, Forst. Descr. Anitn. p. 78 (1844). 

 Prosthemadera civcinata,, Beichenb.Handb. Meropince, p. 127, fig. 3466 



(1852). 

 Meliphaga novae zealandiae, Ellmann, Zoologist, 1861, p. 7466. 

 Lamprotornis novae zealandiae, Schlegel, Jaarboek Gesellsch. Nat. Art, 



Mag. 1865. 

 Prosthemadera novae seelandise, Cab. 3Ius. Ilein. i. p. 119 ; Bp, 



C. A. i. p. 391 ; Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 122, pi. 39. tig. 3 ; id. Hand-l. 



B. i. p. 158, no. 2058. 

 Prosthemadera novee sealandiae, BuHer, Birds Neio Zeal. p. 87, pi. 11. 



Adult. About a dozen feathers on the sides of the throat very 

 long and filamontous, pure white, and curled in upon each other, 

 80 as to form two large globes on the fore neck ; the feathers of 

 the sides of the neck, and especially those of the hind neck, also 

 long and filamentous, but narrow and soft, more or less lanceolate 

 in shape, with narrow white shaft-streaks. General colour of the 

 head and neck all round, and the chest, the wings, the tail, the 

 upper and under tail-coverts, and the edge of the wing metallic 

 black in position A, bluish gTccn in jjosition B, changing into pur- 

 pli.sh blue in position C ; mantle and back, breast, abdomen, and 

 flanks dark brown, with a strong metallic coppery greenish gloss, 

 especially on the upper parts ; inner margin of quills and under 



VOL. IX. 8 



