90 OX THE STjy-BIEDS OF THE [1870. 



bright golden green ; otherwise it is closely allied. An example of a female (so marked by 

 Mr. "Wallace) in my collection, from Temate, is above cinereous-brown, washed with olive-green 

 on the dorsal region. Occipital feathers with pale cinereous edgings. Cheeks, chin, throat, and 

 Ibis, 1870, upper part of breast greyish-white ; remainder of under siirface pale yellow. Wings brown, 

 !'•"*'■ coverts olive-green, and quills edged with that colour, llectrices black, with a faint blue gloss, 

 the three outer pairs tipped with dirty white. A young male putting on the perfect plumage, 

 in my collection, from Gilolo, resembles the female, but is darker in all its hues ; it has already 

 assumed a frontal patch of pure golden-green. The rectrices of the young bird are still retained, 

 and, as in the adult female, the three outer pairs are tipped with white. The upper tail-coverts 

 are metallic blue. A new bright shoulder-covert or two has appeared ; and a bright metallic- 

 blue line descends from each angle of the mouth, the first indication of the glistening gorget 

 of the perfect male. I mention these details, as I feel persuaded that by a study of the phases 

 of plumage the young males of the Nectarinice pass through before reaching maturity, we shall 

 be able to predicate with some certainty the relative age of each species in the Avorld's history. 

 Even with the imperfect knowledge at our command, it may, I venture to think, be safely 

 assumed that the males of the original species from which all the Sun-bii'ds are descended were 

 plainly coloured, like the females and young of the present time ; and it can be shown, in one 

 or two instances at least, that the perfect plumage of one species represents a phase of imperfect 

 plumage in another. 



38. AxTUREPTES iiALACCEXSis (Scop.), Del. Fl. et Faun. Insub. ii. p. 90, no. 02, ex Sonn. 

 (1786). 



Le Grimpereau de Malacca, Sonn., Voy. Ind. ii. p. 209, t. 116.* f. 1, d , dcscr. orig. 



JS^ectarinia javanica, Horsf, Tr. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 107, "Java," (1822), descr. orig. 

 Ibis, 1870, Certhia lepida, Sparrm., ap. Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 298, no. 60, ex Sonn. (nee Sparrm.). 



^' ' Nectarinia lepida (Lath.), Temm. PI. Col. livr. xxi. t. 120. f. 1, 2, d ? , "Java." 



Cinnt/n's Icpidus (Lath.), Vieill., Galerie, i. p. 291, t. 177. 



C.javanica, Horsf., Swains., Zool. Illust. 1st ser. iii. t. 121. 



Anthreptes lepida (Lath.), "Wallace, P.Z.S. 1862, p. 343, " Sula Islands, Celebes." 



Cinnyris lepidus. Lesson, Manuel, ii. pp. 33 & 58. 



C. rufcollis, Vieill., Enc. Meth. Ois. p. COO, "Les Grandes Indes," 6 adult. (1828), descr. 

 orig. 



Ilab. Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Malacca (S. Miiller) ; Celebes (Miiller, ^^'allace) ; Sula 

 Islands, "does not reach the Moluccas" (Wallace); Arracan, Tcnasserim (Blyth); Labuan 

 (Motley and Dillwyn); Banjermassing (Sclater, P. Z. S. 1863, p. 220) ; Flores (Wallace) ; Siam 

 (Gould, P. Z. S. 1859, p. 1-j1) ; Cambodia (Mas. nostr. 2 ). 



Banjermassing, Flores, Malaccan, and Javan examples in my collection in no way differ. 



* Tho Grimpereau gris de la Chine oi tho next Plato (117) — Certhia grisea, Baop. {ox Somi.), and also, but inde- 

 pendently, of Latham (c.\ Sonn., C. tteniata, Shaw, ex Sonn., and Dicieam Jlavipes, ViuiU., ex Sonn.), is aPniiiu, with ten 

 rectrices, and agrees with Prima «onite)w, Swinhoc (Ibis, ISGU, p. 50, from " Amoy and Foochow"); and 1 may hero 

 mention that C. parietum, Lath. (Ind. Om. i. p. 293, no. 58, 1790, founded on Sonnerat's liossignol de muraiUe des Indes, 

 op. cit. p. 208), seems to be Phueaicura superciliaris, Jerd. oliin, the South-Indian race of Larvivora cyanea, Hodgs,, from 

 which it is specifically separable. 



