2. CAMARHYNCHUS. 15 



As with the genus Oeospiza, the difference between the various 

 species of Camarhynchus is simply one of size, and so no " key to the 

 species " can be tabulated. 



1. Camarhynchus variegatus. 



Camarhynchus variegatus, Scl. # Salv. P. Z. S. 1870, pp. 323, 324 ; 

 id. Nomencl. Av. Neotr. p. 29 (1873) ; Salvin, Trans. Z. S. ix. 

 p. 489, pi. lxxxv. (1876). 



Adult male. General colour sandy brown, the upper back and 

 mantle darker brown, the feathers mottled with sandy-brown edges ; 

 upper tail-coverts blackish brown, edged with olive brown ; wing- 

 coverts blackish brown, with pale sandy margins to the greater 

 coverts and bastard-wing ; primary-coverts and quills dark brown, 

 edged with pale olive-brown, the inner secondaries uniform dark 

 brown ; tail-feathers dark brown, edged with dark olive-brown like 

 the upper tail-coverts ; the outer feathers edged with sandy buff 

 along the tip of the inner web ; crown of head and nape, sides of 

 face and sides of neck, cheeks, throat, and chest black, the chest- 

 feathers broadly edged with sandy buff; remainder of the under 

 surface of body sandy buff, the breast and sides of the body mottled 

 with blackish centres to the feathers ; centre of abdomen and under 

 tail-coverts uniform sandy buff; thighs blackish; axillaries and 

 under wing-coverts greyish olive with black centres, the greater 

 coverts white at the ends ; quills dusky below, ashy whitish along 

 the inner web. Total length 5 - 5 inches, culmen 0*7, wing 3 - 35, 

 tail 2-05, tarsus 1*1. 



Adult female. General colour above brown washed with ashy 

 olive, the lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts slightly mottled 

 with darker brown centres to the feathers ; lesser wing-coverts like 

 the back ; median and greater coverts dark brown, edged with pale 

 sandy olive ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills dark brown, 

 edged with ashy olive, paler on the primaries ; tail-feathers dark 

 brown, margined with olive and edged with whitish round the end 

 of the inner web ; crown a little deeper brown than the back ; lores 

 ashy buff; sides of face and ear-coverts brown; cheeks and under 

 surface of body sandy yellowish with a slight olive tinge, the throat 

 and chest mottled with dark-brown centres to the feathers, forming 

 narrower streaks on the breast, a little broader on the sides of the 

 body and flanks ; abdomen and under tail-coverts uniform sandy 

 yellowish ; thighs yellowish, mottled with dark-brown centres to 

 the feathers ; axillaries pale yellowish ; under wing-coverts yel- 

 lowish, mottled with brown bases ; quills dusky below, whitish along 

 the inner webs. Total length 5"5 inches, culmen 065, wing 3'05, 

 tail 2, tarsus l - 05. 



The immature male resembles the female in plumage. 



Adult males from Abingdon Island measure : — Wing 3 - 35 inches, 

 tarsus VI. 



