ON THE GENUS MYZOMELA. 75 



Red-rumped Creeper, Lath. Gen. Syn. Suppl. ii. p. 169 (1801). 



Certhia eryihropygia, Lath. Ind. Orn. Suppl. p. xxxviii (1801). 



Certhia australasice, Leach, Zool. Misc. i. p. 30, t. 11 (1814). 



Myzomela cardinalis, V. & H. (nee Gm.) Linn. Trans, xv. p. 316 

 (1826). 



Myzomela sanguinolenta, Gld. B. A. iv. pi. 63 ; id. Handb. B. A. i. p. 555. 



cJ ad. capite, dor so cum uropygio, pectore et lateribus abdominis coccineis ; 

 macula anteoculari, alis caudaque nigris ; alarum lectricibus conspicue 

 albido, remigibus olivaceo-griseo limbatis ; abdomine sordide flavido ; 

 subcaudalibus griseo alboque variis ; rostro nigro, pedibus corneis. 

 Long. al. 2'4, caud. 1*6, rostr. 0*45, tars. 0'5 (poll. Angl.). 

 $ sordide griseo-brunnea, subtus dilutior ; dorso et uropygio rufescenti 

 tinctis ; alis caudaque fuscis, remigibus olivaceo, tectricibus alarum 

 pallide brunneo marginatis. 



Hob. in Australia. 



The phases of plumage in this species, the type of the genus (for M. 

 cardinalis, apud Vig. & Horsf . I. s. c., is this bird), seem to have caused 

 some confusion amongst the older authors. It seems to me that in 

 all probability Latham's " Scarlet Creeper/' on which Gmelin founded 

 Certhia rubra in his edition of the ' Systema Naturae,' really applies to 

 this species, the description " lower part of belly and vent white," 

 together with the size (** of a Wren ") and the locality (" from some part 

 of the South Seas ") quite coinciding with this bird, and not at all with 

 M. cardinalis, of which, in his Ind. Oru. (i. p. 290, 1790), Latham 

 treated it as being the female. Besides this, Latham bestowed at least 

 three other Latin names (each with its equivalent vernacular) on this 

 little bird. 



Myzomela sanguinolenta is perhaps most nearly allied to M. chloro- 

 ptera, which differs, however, as below pointed out. Only the males 

 possess the beautiful red plumage ; and in these, if not quite adult, the 

 variegation of each breast-feather, which is grey at the base, then paler, 

 and red only at the tip, produces the somewhat mottled appearance of 

 the red underparts. 



According to Mr. Gould, the irides are " dark brown." 



Myzomela sanguinolenta is the commonest species of Myzomela in 

 Australia, and is familiarly known to the colonists as the "Little 

 Soldier." Mr. Bamsay, in his list of Australian Birds (Proc. Linn. Soc. 

 N. S. ~W. ii. 1877), records it from Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, the 

 "Wide-Bay District, the Richmond- and Clarence-Biver Districts, New P. Z. S. 1879, 

 S. Wales, the interior, Victoria, and S. Australia ; so that it ranges over p * 

 the greater part of Eastern Australia. 



Mr. Ramsay has given us a good account of the habits and nesting of 

 this species near Sydney, where it is a summer visitor, arriving in 

 October and November, in * The Ibis' for 1865 (p. 304). 



