2Ö LIST OF BIRDS 



with red feathers which gradually occupy the entire throat , 

 leaving the chin black. In the meantime , i. e. after the 

 throat has become almost entirely red , a different process 

 is going on with the hind neck , where some black feathers 

 begin to make their appearance, continually increasing in 

 number until the whole hind neck has changed his ori- 

 ginally red colour into black, and the same is the case 

 on the fore-head, which later on becomes black in males 

 and females. After the birds have assumed the plumage of 

 the adult, or sometimes even before, the distinctive cha- 

 racter of the male , the crest , begins to get its full length , 

 while in the immature stage the males cannot be distin- 

 guished from the females. Amongst our specimens which 

 I consider to be immature, i. e. not to have assumed the 

 last stage of plumage, we have one with entirely black 

 throat and but few red feathers on the chest, and other 

 specimens represent the gradual change into the red throat 

 of the adult. 



If the above developed ideas prove, by further investi- 

 gations, to be correct, a concise diagnosis of the species 

 would be as follows : 



Adult male: General color sooty black , some of the 

 feathers, especially on the back, margined with a metal- 

 lic gloss; base of fore-head, lores, circlet round the eye, 

 angle of mouth and the chin also black ; crested crown , 

 sides of head , sides of fore-neck as well as the entire throat 

 and upper chest, crimson. 



Adult female: Similar to the male, but no occipital 

 crest. 



Immature male and female: Similar to the adult 

 female , but the throat black instead of red , in more ad- 

 vanced stage intermixed with red feathers , the red of the 

 crown continued foreward right down to the base of the 

 bill, and backward onto the hind neck. The change of 

 the color is performed by a complete moult. 



65. Malimhus nitens (Gray). 



A large series was collected, which contains a number 



iN^otes from tlie Leyden M-useum, "Vol. XIV. 



