1870.] INDIAN AND AIJSTEALIAN EEGIONS. 85 



The comparative dimensions are here given : — 



Eost. a nar. 



N. zeylonica (L.), Ceylon -5 



„ „ Maunbhoom . . . "56 

 ,, „ Brit. Mus "56 



I refrain from giving this form a title until I have been able to examine more examples. 

 Is it the " variety " mentioned by Sir W. Jardine {I. c.) as being preserved in Mr. Strickland's 

 collection * % Perhaps the British-Museum specimen came from Bombay, where Mr. Swinhoe 

 mentions having observed N. zcjjlonica (Ibis, 1864, p. 41G). The characters which denote the 

 female and distinguish her from the young male have not been, as yet, absolutely defined. 

 Information on this point, based on dissection, is most desirable; for the affinities of the ibis, ]R70, 

 Sun-birds can be best determined by a study of the females and young. Two distinct phases of P- '*'^- 

 plumage are observable in the young or else in the female of this species. The first, in which 

 the general colour above is ashy-brown and underneath bright yellow, but with the chin, throat, 

 and upper breast (that is, the violet and maroon region in the old male) albescent, defining that 

 part from the remainder of the under surface. In this stage the occipital feathers have slightly 

 darker centres, the upper tail-coverts are generally found passing into metallic black, and the 

 rump-feathers sometimes with reddish tips. This phase, I surmise, represents the male of the 

 first year. But it may be also found in the female, to which Dr. Jerdon says it belongs. In 

 the second phase the entire upper plumage is greenish or olive-brown, the lower uniform light 

 yellow. This I suspect to be the female livery. In both, the outer edgings of the quills above 

 are ferruginous brown — a characteristic alone sufficient to distinguish this species from the 

 females or young of all the even-tailed Asiatic Sun-birds I have examined. It may, perhaps, be 

 found in N. minima (Sykes). The second phase, which I attribute to the female, agrees 

 perfectly with the Linnsean diagnosis of C. currucaria. 



28. Nectarophila mii^ima (Sykes), P. Z. S. 1832, p. 98, d , 2 , "Deccan." 

 Xectariiiia minuta (Sykes) (errore), Jard., Nat. Lib. xxxvi. pp. 224, 265, tab. in titul., 

 "Malabar," d,$ (l). 



Hah. Deccan, " only in the dense woods of the Ghauts " (Sykes) ; Malabar ; " high forest 

 jungle, west coast, from about lat. 18° N. to Travancore, slopes of Neilgherries up to 3000 feet" 

 (Jerdon) ; Northern Ceylon (Layard, Ann. Nat. Hist. 2 ser., xii. p. 175). 



This is an exceedingly rare species in collections. Two of Colonel Sykes's types are preserved 



* [The Strickland collection contains two male specimens which seem to belong to different species, though each is 

 marked in Mr. Strickland's handwriting " zeylonica " ; the only other information afforded by the labels is in both cases 

 " India. Mr. Askew, 1839." In one of these the top of the head, seen against the light, is dark green, but crimson-violet 

 from the light ; the throat crimson-violet against the light, but frqm the light bluish-violet ; the rump and upper 

 taU-coverts, seen from the light, are bluish- violet, but against the light the former is crimson-violet. In the other example 

 the top of the head is bright green in both lights; the throat, rump, and upper tail-coverts coppery-violet against the light, 

 but from it crimson-violet. Both specimens are otherwise alike ; they are unfortunately in bad condition, the first having 

 lost its bOl, and the last its feet. — Ed. of • Ibis.'] 



