388 Mr. C. W. De Vis on new or little-known 



straw-yellow ; cheeks, chiu, and throat black ; breast white, 

 washed with very pale chestnut and scantily flecked with 

 darker ; a black pectoral band ; lower breast and abdomen 

 white, washed with isabel ; flanks white, boldly barred with 

 black ; thighs, crissals, and under tail-coverts black, the 

 hindmost of the latter tipped with straw-colour; metacarpal 

 edge and under wing-coverts bufty white : " iris brown ; 

 beak blue in adults, corneous blue to grey in young ; feet 

 corneous, corneous blue, or dirty grey/^ Length 120 mm., 

 wing 62, tail 5*7, culmen 9, tarsus 17. 



[The specimen is not quite adult, some brown feathers 

 remaining on the head, and on the thighs and under tail- 

 coverts are traces of bufiy brown.] 



Female, adult, similar to male. 



Female, young. Above brown, growing brighter posteriorly 

 to the upper tail-coverts, which are rufous fawn or pale 

 chestnut ; head slightly mottled with dusky centres ; wing- 

 coverts as back, but with paler edges ; wing fuscous, with 

 rufous edges, the secondaries with pale tips ; metacarpal edge 

 as under wing-coverts, buff ; ear-coverts as head, uniform ; 

 chin and throat nearly black, mottled with white tips ; breast 

 sordid brownish grey, rest of under surface buffy white; 

 flanks and under tail-coverts pale ruddy buff. 



[Distinguished from the young of M. nigriceps by the 

 colour of the upper tail-coverts and of the upper breast ; 

 the black pectoral band is the first sign of adolescence to 

 make its appearance.] 



This species approaches M. nigriceps, but has several marks 

 of distinction. 



" Two males, three females : Mt. Scratchley at 12,200 feet, 

 Sept. 16th to 28th, 1896 ; contents of stomach, seeds." Also 

 one spirit-specimen. 



32. Oreospiza fuliginosa, gen. et sp. nov. 



Oreospiza, gen. nov. 



Bill short, triangular, pointed, not toothed or festooned ; 

 profile of culmen and gonys convex ; lower mandible shorter, 

 but nearly as deep as the upper; wing pointed, fourth, 

 fifth, and sixth primaries longest, secondaries shorter than 



