542 VISCOUNT WALDEN ON BIRDS FROM TENASSERIM. [Nov. 22, 



N. eximia, Temm., but is to be readily distinguished by the absence 

 of the frontal steel-blue patch of the Java bird, which, also, has the 

 abdominal plumage of a much deeper yellow, and consequently the 

 axillary tufts do not contrast so strongly as in the Teuasserim species. 

 The Philippine species, N. jugularis, (Linn.), founded on Brisson's 

 Certhia philippensis minor, is not to be distinguished by description 

 from the Tenasserim bird; and Mr. Blyth, in 1843, identified spe- 

 cimens from Tenasserim with the N. jugularis, Vieill., of Sir W. 

 Jardine's Nectariniadce. Two years later he announced the Tenas- 

 serim form as belonging to an undescribed species, giving it the de- 

 signation I have adopted, but without stating his reasons for no 

 longer considering it the same as N. jugularis, Vieill., apud Jardine. 

 Having been unable to compare with a Philippine specimen, I cannot 

 form an independent opinion ; but we may with almost certainty 

 assume that the specimens from the two localities will be found to 

 specifically differ ; indeed it will be a remarkable coincidence if they 

 do not. Meyen has regarded jugularis, Linn., and the Javan pecto- 

 ralis, Horsf., as young females of his N. philippensis, which appears 

 to be equal to the N. coccineogastra, Temm. ; but the two Philippine 

 birds are almost certainly distinct, and Horsfield's title of pectoralis 

 was given to a mature Javan male. Cinnyris frenata, Mull., from 

 the Sula Islands, closely resembles the Tenasserim flammaxillaris, 

 Blyth, in the distribution of its colours, but it is considerably larger. 

 On the upper surface, like the Tenasserim bird, it wants the steel- 

 blue frontal patch of the Javan pectoralis, Horsf. ; but on the under 

 surface the colour of the plumage is not distinguishable from that of 

 the Javan bird. N. Solaris, Temm., from Flores, is another of the 

 same group ; but where in flammaxillaris the abdominal plumage is 

 pale yellow, and in pectoralis and frenata it is deep yellow, in Solaris 

 it is orange-red ; while the frontal patch and the throat- and breast- 

 plumage are metallic green (and not blue) black. 



I refer N. flammaxillaris to the genus Arachnethra, of which 

 Certhia lotenia, Linn., is the type, in preference to separating it from 

 that group and making it form a fifth species of Dr. Cabanis's genus 

 Chrysostomus, founded for the reception of C. jugularis, Linn., N. 

 pectoralis, Horsf., N. frenata, Mull., and N. Solaris, Temm.; for 

 it, as well as these four species, seem to me to be closely allied to 

 the steel-blue Sun-birds of India and Ceylon, A. lotenia and A. asia- 

 tica. The character of the plumage in all these species evinces a 

 common hereditary relationship. In A. asiatica, Lath., the entire 

 plumage is metallic black ; and in that species we find the blackness 

 at its maximum ; in flammaxillaris it is at its minimum, being con- 

 fined to the pectoral plastron. N. zenobia, Less., exhibits an inter- 

 mediate stage ; for in it we find the whole under surface black, the 

 upper being barely distinguishable from that of the Tenasserim bird. 



On Mr. Blyth's authority, A. flammaxillaris is very common in 

 Tenasserim. Arakan is its furthest known northern limit. Penang 

 specimens do not appear to differ. How much further south it ex- 

 tends remains to be determined. To the west, in India proper, it 

 is unknown. 



