26 Lord AValden on the Sun-birds 



cimen ; but I do possess an example of A.flammaxillaris (Blytli) 

 from Piuang. Sumatrau aud Javan individuals in my collection 

 are undistinguishable ; those from Flores and Lombok are 

 much larger, the bill being fully '125 in. and the wing -25 

 longer. The female is olive-green above, and sulphur-yellow 

 underneath. The pectoral and abdominal plumage of the 

 male is gamboge-yellow, as in A. frenata (Miiller). No ma- 

 roon band separates the steel-blue plastron from the yellow 

 breast. A Lombok male in my collection has a longitudinal 

 metallic blue stripe from the chin to the breast, the forehead 

 and rest of the plumage being the same as in the female. Is this 

 the postnuptial attire ? The orange axillaries are not to be 

 detected. Reichenbach (Handb. no. 722) erroneously refers 

 this species to Audebert^s and Vieillot's 29th plate. 



6. Arachnechthra frenata (S. Miiller), Verb. Nat. Gesch. 

 Ned. Overz. Bez. Land- en Volkenk. p. 173, note, 6 , 2 , " New 

 Guinea, Menado " [18J.3] ; op. cit. Zool. Aves, p. 61, t. 8. f. 1, 

 ^ adult. [1846]. 



Nectarinia australis, Gould, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 201, " North 

 Australia.^' 



Hab. Batchiau, Ternate, Aru Islands, New Guinea, Islands of 

 Torres Straits (G. R. Gray) ; Sula Islands, Celebes, Mysol, 

 Moluccas (Wallace); Kaisa Island (Wallace, Mus. nostr. ?). 

 N. australis, North-east coast of Australia (J. Macgillivray). 



Differs from A. pecto7'alis, (Horsf.), by wanting the metallic- 

 blue frontal patch, by having the yellow supercilium and yellow 

 cheeks more strongly marked, and by being larger even than 

 Lombok examples of that species. In all other characters the 

 two species are identical. An example of a female has the under- 

 plumage quite as deep yellow as the male, it likewise possesses 

 a yellow supercilium. After comparing a considerable series of 

 Cape- York examples of N. australis, Gould, of both sexes, with 

 authentic individuals of N. frenata, Miiller, I have come to the 

 conclusion that they are not specifically separable. Mysol, Ce- 

 lebes, Aru, and Sula examples appear to have the tips of the 

 outer rectrices of a deeper yellow than in Cape- York individuals. 

 A Sula specimen, in the British Museum, has the bill consider- 



