596 Mr. W. It. Ogil vie- Grant on Birds 



Acanthidositta chloris Sclater, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xiv. 

 p. 451 (1888) [part.]. 



Acanthidositta citrina Grant, Bull. B. O. C. xv. no. cxvi. 

 p. 83 (1905). 



a. $ adult. Dusky Sound, Otago Dist., South I., New 

 Zealand, March 1901. Ranfurly Coll. 



b, c. $ adult et £ pullus (in spirits). Avondale Station, 

 Marlborough, South I., New Zealand (C. G. Teschemaker). 

 Ranfurly Coll.* 



This species has been generally confounded with the closely 

 allied form A. chloris (Sparrm.), but the adult male may be at 

 once recognised by the wide and strongly defined white eye- 

 brow stripe and by having the mantle and back of a bright 

 sap-green colour, the rump and upper tail-coverts yellow, 

 faintly tinged with greenish, but contrasting strongly with 

 the back ; and the sides, flanks, and under tail-coverts bright 

 yellow. Iris and bill black, legs brown, feet light yellow. 

 Size larger than in A. chloris. Wing 205-21 inches ; 

 tarsus 0*81. 



The adult female differs chiefly from the female of 

 A. chloris by having the feathers of the head and nape light 

 brown with marginal streaks of black (as in the immature 

 bird) ; the superciliary stripe white and very strongly de- 

 fined; the back dark olive-brown, indistinctly streaked with 

 blackish in younger birds; and the rump and upper tail- 

 coverts brownish-yellow. Wing l'9-2'0 inches ; tarsus 0*8. 



Young birds may be distinguished from the young of 

 A. chloris by having less green on the upper parts, only the 

 rump and outer margins of the quills being tinged with 

 olive. The pale brown black-edged feathers, confined to 

 the head and nape in the young of A. chloris, extend over 

 the back in the present species, and the spotting on the throat 

 and breast is much bolder. 



This difference in plumage cannot be dependent on sex ; 

 for Mr. W. P. Py craft has ascertained, from an examination 

 of three young birds in spirits of about the same age, that 



* See footnote on p. 595. 



