Birds of Gov y h Island. 257 



Mr. Comer (Verrill, /. c. p. 463), alluding to these birds, 

 says that small birds, like Sparrows, are very common at 

 Gough Island, and are of two kinds — one slatish above, 

 yellowish beneath, and with a round black spot on the 

 breast : the other much like the first, but lacking the black 

 spot ; possibly it is the female. Of their habits he merely 

 remarks that they are very tame and sing. 



2. Nesospiza jessi.e. (Plate VI. fig. 1.) 



Xrso.yiiza jessice, Eagle Clarke, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, xv. 

 p. 18. 



Male and Female. General colour orange-buff (brighter on 

 the lower back), streaked with black on the head, back, 

 scapulars, lesser wing-coverts, breast, and flanks ; primaries 

 blackish, narrowly edged with dull yellow ; secondaries and 

 wing-coverts blackish, broadly edged externally with buff; 

 rectrices with dusky centres and broad buff margins. Bill 

 and feet blackish. Wing 4*05 inches, tail 3 - 45, tarsus 1*2, 

 culmen 0*65. 



In this form the culmen is nearly straight, the gonys is 

 ascending, the first primary is equal to the sixth, and the 

 tail-feathers are lanceolate. In all these respects it differs 

 from N. govghensis. 



I at first thought that we had in these buff specimens 

 the female and young of the green N. goughensis, but on 

 dissecting specimens it was found that the green birds were 

 of both sexes. There then remained the possibility of the 

 buff birds being the young of N. govghensis, though differing 

 remarkably in plumage from either parent. An examination 

 of the material, however, disclosed the fact that, although 

 identical in plumage, some specimens were unmistakably 

 immature, while others possessed characters which I inter- 

 preted as indications of maturity. In these examples the 

 tendons of the feet were ossified or partially ossified, the 

 fibula was fused to the tibia, and the claws were well-worn. 

 In this connection it is important to remember that, if all 

 young, these birds could only vary a few weeks in their 

 respective ages, for they were obtained in the autumn and 

 hence must be il birds of the year." This evidence, and the 



