24 DIE PAPAGEIEN. 



7-55; 7-3. Kondul, 7*35 ; 7"35 ; 7-55; 7'5 ; 7'5; 7'4. Camorta, 

 7-3; 7-3; 73; 715 ; 7'1 ; 71; 6-95. Trinkut, 7. 



Paleornis Affinis. Males. — Port -Blair and its neighbour- 

 hood, 6-8; 6"95 ; 6-8 ; 6"6; 675 ; 6-95 ; 6-9; 6-82; 67; 7-05; 

 6-82 ; 6-7 ; 6-6 ; 712 ; 7 ; 7'12 ; 6-95 ; 6-75 ; 7 ; 7"1 ; 675. Port 

 Mouat, 6-8; 6-8 j 7-08; 6-8. Macpherson's Straits, 6 "85. Great 

 Cocos, 7. Little Cocos, 7 '2. Preparis, 67 ; 7" 2 ; 7. 



Paleornis Affinis. Females. — Table Island, 6-99; 675; 

 Little Cocos, 67; 6*55; Q'Q. Port Blair and its neighbourhood, 

 6-8; 6-7; 6-25; 6-4; 6'3; 67; 675; 6-8; 675; 6-6; 6*55; 

 6-55 ; 6-95 ; Macpherson's Straits, 6'65 ; 67. 



No one who compares these figures ea'n fail to perceive that 

 the Nicobar bird, as a race, is persistently larger than the Anda- 

 man bird. The largest Andaman male has the wing only 7 "2, and 

 this is very greatly above the average, while the smallest Nicobar 

 male has the wing 7'3, and this is considerably below the aver- 

 age. Only one Nicobar female has the wing at all below 7, and 

 not one Andaman female has the wing as much, as 7. 



There is a similar difference, though less marked, in the size of 

 the bills ; 0*93 is about the maximum length of the Andaman 

 bird's bill, measured from nostril to point. While 1"0 is a com- 

 mon dimension for the Nicobar bird, and they run to 1*03. 



Dimensions alone would not justify specific separation, but 

 the coloration also in both sexes is different in the birds from the 

 two groups of Islands. 



In the Nicobar females, the mandibular stripe is black except 

 just at the end where it becomes greenish. In the Andaman 

 females, the entire stripe is a deep green, becoming paler, and 

 brighter towards the tip. In the males, the difference is even 

 more strongly marked, but is less easy to express in words. 

 The nape and back are much more strongly suffused in the 

 Andaman bird, with a lilac and glaucous tinge. And the breasts 

 again in the Nicobar birds are a yellowish green, but in the 

 Andaman specimens are suffused with a lighter shade of the 

 back tinge. 



In other respects the birds are similar, but any one can sepa- 

 rate at a glance the birds of either sex belonging to the two 

 groups of Islands, and it appears to me that they are entitled to 

 specific distinction. 



But these two species (or one species as it was considered 

 when Dr. Finsch wrote) form no exception to the general rule, 

 that where our author possibly can make a mistake about the 

 distinction of the sexes, he does make it. 



On the strength of " an old female in the Vienna Museum " 

 (palpably, to us who know the species, an old male) " which is 



