S96 Novelties. — CoUocaMa innominata. 



Nor can it be Hirundo vanikorensis, Quoi et Graimard. 



'' Rirundo, tota corpore nigro ; rostro m'minio, recurvato ; guld 

 hrunned, caudd longd, auhfurcatd. 



" Petit espece^ long-iie de 5 pouces, remarkable par la longeur 

 de sa queue et la petitesse de son bee ; toute noire en dessus, 

 d'un brun g-risatre sous la g-orge et enf ume sous le ventre, le bee, 

 quoique petit, est fort ; la queue est legerement ecliancree. 

 Provient de l^ile Yanikoro." Voj-age de l^Astrolobe, vol. 1, p. 

 206, pi. 12, f. 3. 



I cannot get hold of the PI. En., where it is figured, but so far 

 as can be made out from the brief description, it is not francicay 

 Gm. 



I must confess ignorance of Forsteri, Hartl., and leucopJtceay 

 Peale, but as these seem peculiar to Otaheite and Tahiti, and 

 the latter must have some white or albescent about it, it is 

 not very unreasonable to presume, in the absence of accurate 

 knowledge, that it is neither of these very doubtful s^Decies. 



It is not, it seems to me, any of all these, and so far I believe 

 it is " imwminata" ; si quid recl.iiis, Sj'cJ" 



Besides this, we have at the Andamansthe little swiffclet, called 

 affmis by Beavan and Ty tier, which either is, or is closely allied to 

 Linchi ; wing from 3 '82 to 4, above glossy greenish black; breast 

 and chin, grey brown ; abdomen, white; the feathers more or 

 less brown shafted. 



Then we have also spodiopygia, Peale. " Tota fuliginosa, 

 supra saturatior , urojii/gio taenia transversa lata cinerascenti, alba" 

 Wing 4*5 ; obtained from the Samoan and Fiji islands. 



Our Andaman specimen measured in the flesh, length 4'5 ; 

 expanse, 10'8 ; wing, 4"6. Upper surface uniform deep or 

 intense smoky brown, with a conspicuous brownish, albescent 

 band on the rump ; below a smoky mouse-brown ; wings and 

 tail, black. 



Should this chance to prove distinct from Peale^s bird, which 

 I do not at all expect, it may stand as inexpectata, nobis ! 



As for the birds we get on the Neilgherries, these differ from 

 all the preceding; they resemble innoyninata, but are much 

 smaller; wings 4"3 to 4"6 ; have the whole under-surface a ^re^ 

 brown and the upper surface, intermediate between sepia and 

 mouse-brown, and no daric cap, though the head is slightly darker. 

 These must stand as unicolor, Jerd. Very likely the true 

 faciphaga will turn up at the Andamans, but I have not yet 

 received it. 



Mr. Ball surely errs in saying- that the consensus of 

 ornithologists is in favour of fuciphaga and linchi beings 

 identical. No two species can well be more distinct. 



