20 OX BIRDS PROM TENASSERIM. [18GC). 



same as X.jngulans, Vieill., apud Jardine. Ha\-ing been unable to compare with a Philippine 

 specimen, I cannot form an independent opinion ; but we may with almost certainty assume that 

 the specimens from the two localities will be found to specifically differ ; indeed it will be a 

 remarkable comcidence if they do not. Meyen has regarded ji'«y??/f/WA-, Linn., and the Javau 

 2)ecforaIh, UoYsf.. as young females of his X. jifiifij^I^ensis, which appears to be equal to the 

 3'. cocci u cog ad ra, Temm. ; but the two Philippine birds are almost certainly distinct, and 

 Horsfield's title of pectoralis was given to a mature Javau male. Cinnyris frenata, Mvill., from 

 the Sula Islands, closely resembles the Tena.?,sex\m flammtucillaris, Blyth, in the distribution of 

 its colours, but it is considerably larger. On the upper surfoce, like the Tenasserim bird, it 

 wants the steel-blue frontal patch of the Javan jj^c/o/y/Z/s, Horsf ; but on the under surface the 

 colour of the plumage is not distinguishable from that of the Javau bird. X. solaria, Temm., 

 from Flores, is another of the same group; but where m flammaydlaris the abdominal plumage 

 is pale yellow, and in pectoralis and frenata it is deep yellow, in solans it is orange-red ; while 

 the frontal patch and the throat- and breast-plumage are metallic green (and not blue) black. 



I refer N. Jlammaxillaris to the genus Jj-achnecfhra, of which Certhia lotenia, Linn., is the 

 type, in preference to separating it from that group and making it form a fifth species of 

 Dr. Cabauis's genus Chri/sostomus, founded for the reception of C.jugularis, Linn., N. pcctoralis, 

 Horsf., y. frenata, Miill., and N. Solaris, Temm.; for it, as well as these four species, seem to 

 me to be closely allied to the steel-blue Sunbirds of India and Ceylon, A. lotenia and A. asiatica. 

 The character of the plumage in all these species evinces a common hereditary relationship. In 

 A. asiatica. Lath., the entire plumage is metallic black; and in that species we find the blackness 

 at its maximum ; mfammaxillaris it is at its minimum, being confined to the pectoral plastron. 

 N. zcnohia. Less., exhibits an intermediate stage ; for in it wc find the whole under surface black, 

 the upper being barely distinguishable from that of the Tenasserim bird. 



On Mr. Blyth's authority, A. Jlammaxillaris is very common in Tenasserim. Arakan is its 

 furthest known northern limit. Penang specimens do not appear to differ. How much further 

 south it extends remains to be determined. To the west, iu India proper, it is unknown. 



r.Z.S.lSOC, 11. LEPTOCOilA BRAZILIAXA (Gm.). 



p. 543. 



Certhia hraziliana, Gm. S. N. ed. 13 (1788). 



Certhia brasiliensis violacea, Briss. Orn. iii. 062. n. 30, pi. 32. f. 4. 



Kectariuia hasseltii, Temm. Pi. Col. 376. f. 3, <^. 



Xectariniaphayrei, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1843, p. 1008. 



No. 65, 6. 



" Moulmein. Irides dark brown ; bill and legs black. Shot feeding on low flowering 

 shrubs. Note, a low piping call." The single specimen sent has some of the chin- and throat- 

 feathers white, the rest being of the brilliant amethystine purple of the species. The metallic 

 occipital feathers consist cliiefly of blue-green plumes, tlie outer only being yellow-green. When 

 compared with Sumatran specimens its plumage does not appear quite so brilliant ; and the 

 shades of the metallic portions somewhat differ in colour. It closely resembles a Malaccan skin 

 in iny collection, and wliich is in perfect plumage. In this also the occipital feathers are more 



