256 



Mr. W. R. Ogilvie Grant on the 



the rest of the underparts are pale yellowish olive, with no 

 trace of the orange-yellow on the breast as described in the 

 female of C. guimaraseiisis. 



Rhabdornis mystacalis (Temm.) ; Grant, Ibis, 1894, 

 p. 409. 



Mr. Whitehead has sent me some interesting notes on this 

 bird, which he considers ought to be placed in close proximity 

 to the genus Arachnothera, the same brown style of plumage 

 being found in the aberrant form Arachnothera julice, one of 

 his discoveries on Mt. Kina Balu. Much of this bird's time, 

 he says, is spent in searching among the flowers, just like an 

 Arachnothera, and he also points out that the tongue is 

 brush-tipped. He has forwarded me two examples in spirits, 

 one of which is represented in the accompanying figure 

 (fig. 1), and I have also shown the tongues of such birds as 

 the Wall-Creeper [Tichodroma mnraria), the Tree-Creepers 

 ( Certhia and Salpornis) , the Australian Creepers ( Climacteris) , 

 and the Nuthatch [Sitta ccesia), with which Rhabdornis has 

 been associated. 



Fi?. 1. 



Fig. 2. 



In comparing the tongues of these various forms the great 

 differences in the structure will at once be appreciated. 

 Rhabdornis has the tongue bifid at the extremity and cirrhated 

 along the sides only, and of all the tongues which I have so 

 far been able to examine is most like that of Sitta casia 

 (fig. 2). 



The tongue of the Wall-Creeper (fig. 3) is remarkably 

 simple in form, being merely bilobed at the extreme tip, and 

 devoid of all bristle-like processes ; while in Certhia stoliczka 



