474 Messrs. A. and E. Newton 07i 



the black-headed white Ibis_, which he found in China, and 

 which has since been obtained in Japan, to be a new species, 

 although it now appears that he was in error in so doing. 

 Jerdon described the Indian species as having the disinte- 

 grated tertials quaker-grey, and erroneously stated that the 

 quills were black. The skin in my collection, obtained in 

 Yedo in the summer of 1874, has some of the quills tipped 

 with black ; the tertials are less developed than in examples 

 from India in summer plumage, and there is very little trace 

 of grey upon them. It is nevertheless a very large bird, much 

 larger than the examples in the British Museum, before the 

 arrival of the Hume Collection. I have now had an 

 opportunity of comparing it with a larger series, and I have 

 no doubt of the identity of the Indian and Burmese birds 

 with those of China and Japan. In size it does not differ 

 from the largest examples in the Hume Collection, and I 

 have little doubt that the black tips of some of the quills are 

 signs of comparative youth, as they are in the Spoonbills. 

 It is probably in first summer plumage, and would have 

 acquired the more developed richer-coloured tertials and lost 

 the black tips to the quills in the following year. 



The following table of dimensions shows the variations in 



size of this species : — 



Length Leiigtii 



of wing. of tarsus. 



in. in. 



Yedo, Japan ]4f 42 



N.-West Prov. India, c? ad 14| 4-4 



Centr. Prov. India 14^ 4-0 



Centr. Prov. India, J ad 14i 3-9 



N.-West Prov. India, juv 14^ 4-1 



Upper Tenasserim, S ini 14 4-3 



Centr. Prov. India, $ ad 13 3-5 



Pegu, c? ad 13| 3-G 



Delhi, India, 6 juv ]2i 37 



L. — Notes on some Species o/Zosterops. 

 By Alfred and Edward Newton. 



Canon Tristram having kindly submitted to us the type- 

 specimen of Zosterops prcetermissa, described and figured in 



