1866.] ON BIEDS FKOM TENASSERUr, 19 



9. ^THOPYGA MILES (IlodgS.). 



Cinnyris miles, Hodgs. Ind. Rev. 1837, p. 273. 



Nectarinia goaJpariensis, Koyle, 111. Him. Bot. 78, pi. 7. f. 1 (1839). 



Nos. G8, c?, 43, ?. Moulmein ; Salween Valley. 



" Frequents Amherstm-trees in flower. Note, a loud piping. Observed on Salween trip in 

 villages, feeding on the flowers of the cocoa-nut palm." " Not only frequents flowering trees, 

 but low bushes and annuals near the ground when in flower. Secured a specimen on the common 

 Costus argyrophyllusy 



No. 43 is marked a female ; but as it has the feathers of chin, throat, and breast strongly 

 tinged with crimson, I am inclined to regard it as a young male, the females of the species, 

 according to both Hodgson and Jerdon, being soberly plumaged, without any of the brilliant 

 colours of the male. I have been unable to compare Himalayan specimens, which furnished 

 Hodgson with his types ; but Jerdon states that the Himalayan bird is found in the Burmese 

 countries. If Tickell's Nect. seliericB (J. A. S. B. 1833, p. 577), founded on a Borabhum specimen, 

 should prove to be identical with the Himalayan form, Hodgson's title of miles wiU have to o-ive 

 way. The utmost southern limits of this bird have yet to be defined. As yet it does not appear 

 to have been discovered in the Malay peninsula. 



10. Arachnecthea flammaxillaris (Blyth). 



Nectarinia flammaxillaris, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1845, p. 557. 



Nos. 37, 45, 46, 6- 38, 39, 51, 70, 2. Kyodan, Salween Valley; Moulmein. 



" A distinct semicircle of dull brick-red on breast, below the steel-blue neck-patch ; below 

 it, again, a few black feathers ; irides reddish brown ; feet and legs black. The female is pale 

 olive-green, with a yellow breast, and wants the steel-blue throat of the male." Specimen no. 51 

 is assuming the steel-blue plastron, and has the orange-coloured axillary tufts fully developed. 

 It is therefore probably a young male. The remaining three female specimens are in the sober 

 plumage described above. In the colouring of the whole upper surface they closely resemble the 

 male — so much so that, if specimens of the two sexes are viewed together only from above, it is 

 difficult to detect any distinction. The tails in both, above and below, are alike, the white tips of 

 the outer rectrices being equally prominent on the under surface. The only features which really 

 distinguish the males are the bright flame-coloured tufts, the steel-blue plumage of the chin, 

 throat, and breast, and the brick-red semicircle on the breast, which is difficult to detect in skins 

 that have not been carefully prepared. 



This species is nearly allied to the Javan N. pectoralis, Horsf.= N. eximia, Temm., but P.Z.S.18G0, 

 is to be readily distinguished by the absence of the frontal steel-blue patch of the Javan ^^' ^"^"' 

 bird, which, also, has the abdominal plumage of a much deeper yellow, and consequently 

 the axillary tufts do not contrast so strongly as in the Tenasserim species. The Philippine 

 species, JV. jugularis (Linn.), founded on Brisson's Certhia philippensis minor, is not to be 

 distinguished by description from the Tenasserim bird ; and Mr. Blyth, in 1843, identified 

 specimens from Tenasserim with the N. jugularis, Vieill., of Sir W. Jardine's Nectariniidce. 

 Two years later he announced the Tenasserim form as belonging to an undescribed species, o-ivino- 

 it the designation I have adopted, but without stating his reasons for no longer considerin"' it the 



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