200 ZOSTEROPS HOVARUM. 



The Seychelles Brown White-eye is confined to the Sey- 

 chelles Archipelago. Here it was discovered on Mahe, the 

 largest and most central island of this group, by Mr. E. 

 Newton, who found a flock of them on a sort of plateau 500 

 feet above the sea, and writes : " They were tolerably plentiful 

 in a grove of clove trees, incessantly in motion, following one 

 another from tree to tree, as restless as Titmice. Their only 

 note was a sharp one, and though from their appearance on 

 dissection they would soon have bred, they did not sing." 

 Dr. Abbott has collected three specimens on Mahe in March, 

 and it is quite possible that the species is confined to that 

 island. 



Zosterops hovarum. 



Zosterops hovarum, Tristr. Ibis, 1887, p. 235, pi. 11, fig. 2 ; A. and E. 

 Newton, Ibis, 1888, p. 475 Madagascar; Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 

 108 (1896). 



Type. Above, as well as the cheeks and ear-coverts, uniform slaty-grey, 

 faintly washed with brown towards the forehead ; quills and tail dark brown, 

 partially edged with grey on the outer webs of the feathers ; a clear white 

 ring round the eye ; lores dusky black. Beneath, white, shaded with ashy 

 grey on the sides of the throat and with ashy brown on the sides of the 

 body ; under wing-coverts and inner margins of the quills white. Bill 

 blackish, legs grey. Total length 4-3 inches, culmen 04, wing 2-2, tail 1/7, 

 tarsus 0-65. Type, Madagascar. 



The Hova Grey-backed "White-eye inhabits Madagascar. 

 The Rev. Canon Tristram, who has kindly lent me the type 

 to describe, writes : " I purchased a small parcel of bird- 

 skins from Madagascar." That they really came from tins 

 island there is no reason to doubt, as all the other skins 

 were known to him as belonging to Madagascar species. 

 It is a well-marked species, apparently most nearly allied 

 to Z. modesta from the Seychelles. 



