170 BIRDS FROM NIAS. 



This species is very closely allied to Ch. malaccense and 

 Ch. miniatum aud ougbt to be placed between both men- 

 tioned species in the system. From Ch. malaccensis it is 

 at once distinguished by the much longer occipital crest, 

 which is obviously more lively red , the red colour occu- 

 pying the feathers nearly down to the base. The mantle 

 is very strongly varied with lively red , while there are 

 at the best some few dull red markings on the mantle of 

 Ch. malaccense. The whole back and rump are much more 

 lively yellow than in Ch. malaccense. In these peculiarities 

 our species agrees very much with Ch. miniatum from 

 Java, to which it is in fact more closely allied than to 

 Ch. malaccense, but its red occipital crest is somewhat 

 darker than in Ch. miniatum^ and not fully as long, 

 while the yellow nuchal feathers are longer in the Nias 

 birds, reaching beyond the red occipital feathers. The red 

 on the mantle is , as a rule , less richly extended over the 

 mantle than in Ch. miniatum, though in our single male 

 the whole mantle is almost entirely glossy red , much 

 more so than in some of our Javan specimens. These dif- 

 ferences and afiSnities are the same in the males as well 

 as in the females. In size the Nias birds do not differ from 

 the two allied species. Wing 12 — 12,3 cm.; tail 7,2; cul- 

 men 2,7 — 3; tarsus 2,3. 



»Iris red, bill black, lower mandible yellow, feet dirty 

 yellow. Native name : To-hia." 



The differences mentioned above had already called the 

 attention of Count Salvadori (1. c. p. 530), and a compa- 

 rison of our four specimens with 84 specimens of Ch. ma- 

 laccense from Malacca , Sumatra , Borneo , Banka and Bil- 

 liton , and with 8 specimens of Ch. miniatum from Java, 

 convinced me that the Nias form must be treated as a 

 distinct species. 



16. Thriponax javensis (Horsf.). 



Thriponax jnvensis Oust. I.e. pp. 110, 119. 



An adult male (N^ 156) and two adult females (Nos. 



Notes from ttie JL.eyderi Museum, Vol. XVIII. 



