Species of Nectarinia, Sitta, and Parus. 87 



feathers characteristic of the group to which this species 

 belongs. 



The male in non-breeding plumage resembles the female, 

 except that it has the usual purple stripe from throat to vent, 

 the rest of the underparts being pale grey, whilst the wings 

 and tail are rather darker than in females, and there is a tinge 

 of purple gloss on the smaller wing-coverts and rectrices. 



Female. — Above, greyish brown, quills and wing-coverts hair- 

 brown with pale margins, tail blackish brown, all the outer 

 tail-feathers tipped with whitish, the amount being largest on 

 the outermost feathers, on which it extends some distance 

 up the outer w r eb. Lower parts greyish white, with more 

 or less pale yellow on the breast and throat, little or none on 

 the ehin and abdomen. 



The measurements above given were taken from specimens 

 in the flesh. The species may be easily distinguished from 

 N. asiatica by its shorter bill. 



Besides the locality above mentioned, this form may inhabit 

 Arabia, as I saw a Sun-bird closely resembling it at Maskat, 

 on the Arabian coast, near the entrance to the Persian Gulf, 

 in December. Unfortunately I did not obtain specimens. 



2. SlTTA RUPICOLA, Sp. 110V. 



? £. syriaca, Ehr. apud Filippi, Viag. in Persia, p. 346 (nee 



Ehrenb.). 

 S. syriaca, Ehr., similis (sive S. neumayeri) * } sed minor, 



fascia nigra oculari plerumque angustiore et breviore, et 



praesertim rostro pedibusque multo gracilioribus facile 



distinguenda. 

 Long tot. 6, alse 3, caudse T9, tars. 09, pedis 17, rostr. 



a fronte 08, a rictu 1. 



* [Until the publication of the fourteenth part of Messrs. Sharpe and 

 Dresser's ' Birds of Europe ' (Nov. 1872) this name had very properly been 

 consigned to stand as a synonym of the far preferable title of S. syriaca. 

 It is true that Michahelles described the bird in ' The Isis ' for 1830, some 

 years before it was characterized in Temminck's Manuel d'Orn. He, how- 

 ever, did not think fit to latinize the uneuphonious specific name he 

 selected, and, moreover, after saying that the bird was called Sitta syriaca 

 in the Berlin Museum, he did not hesitate to commit a breach of common 

 courtesy in setting: aside a o-ood name readv made to his hand. — Ed.] 



