140 Mr. E. L. Layard on some little-known 



early dinner we then set to work^ took out all the bodies of the 

 birds we had shot, and stowed the skins in close-fitting tin 

 boxes, with damp rags at the bottom. This kept them pliable ; 

 and a few drops of carbolic acid helped to retain them sweet. 

 A few were usually finished ofi" that day, and the remainder on 

 the morrow ; so we had alternate days fag in the forest and 

 rest after. At night we refilled cartridges and wrote labels. 

 This plan of working we found very advantageous ; and I give 

 it for the benefit of some of the young readers of ' The Ibis.'' 

 Having described our country, I now proceed to particu- 

 larize our birds ; and the first I shot on entering the forest 

 shall have precedence. 



ZosTEROPS EXPLORATOR, Layard, P. Z. S. 1875, p. 29. 



I formerly described this species from memory, from a spe- 

 cimen obtained by the ' Challenger ' exploring expedition, 

 and was very glad to meet with it again, and thus be enabled 

 to describe it more in detail. 



Male. Upper surface of back, head, rump, and sides of chest 

 greenish yellow ; forehead, and line reaching to the eye, chin, 

 throat, chest, and under tail-coverts yellow ; belly whitish, 

 tinged with yellow ; flanks pale brown ; circle of feathers 

 round the eyelid well developed and white ; under the eye a 

 small black patch ; wing- and tail-feathers pale black, edged 

 externally with yellow ; inside of wing white ; shoulder tinted 

 with yellow ; bill livid dark blue, tip black, base of lower 

 mandible white ; legs and feet blue ; iris brown. Length 

 4/', wing 2" 6'", tail 1" 6'", tarsi 8'", bill 8'". 



The female resembles the male, but is slightly less brightly 

 coloured. 



This species differs considerably from our other Zosterops 

 [Z. flaviceps, Peale) in having none of the blue (ashy) tints 

 so very noticeable in that species. It approaches apparently 

 most closely to Z. flavifroyis, Gmel., from which it differs in 

 the brown flanks and the centre of the belly being white. 



It ranges in the forest in small parties of ten or more indi- 

 viduals, and, I am informed by the planters, often \dsits their 

 cotton-fields, to devour the minute insects that infest the 



