404 Novelties. — Arachiechihra andamanica. 



back, upper tail coverts, and all the lower parts are deep Mack 

 with glossy green reflections. Irides, pale greyish-yellow, with an 

 inner and outer ring of pale yellow. The upper mandible of the 

 bill is dusky yellow, the lower mandible, gamboge yellow,, 

 whitish at the tip. Legs, dirty white, the toes and web mixed 

 black and dirty white, the black being greatest on the outer 

 toe and web, and decreasing inwardly. 



Length, 37-1 ; expanse, 47-2; wing, 14"1 ; tail, from vent,, 

 10-5 ; bill, at front, 3-9 ; tarsus, 1*7. The testes were "6 in 

 length. 



P. S. — I have just procured a single specimen of a bird 

 which I never before saw in this neighbourhood, viz. : 



208.— Ololygon passerinus, VaM. 



R. M. A, 



go&dti^s. 



Arachneclithra andamanica, Sp, Nov.. 



Nearly allied to A. jugularis, lAn., A. frenata, Milll., and A. flammax- 

 illaris, Blyth. Bill at front, 0'8 to 0'87 ; under surface, pale yellow,. 

 or yellowish white ; axillary tufts, bright gamboge yellow, without the 

 slightest tinge of flame color, or orange ; a more or less reddish olive 

 brown pectoral band, bounding the metallic gorget. 



The above diagnosis suffices, it seems to me, to separate from' 

 all previously described species, the Andaman honey-sucker^ 

 which has hitherto been identified with frenata of Miiller. 

 Having now obtained a large series of this Andaman species, 

 males and females in breeding, and non-breeding plumage, I 

 can not myself doubt its distinctness. From A. pectoralis, 

 Horsf., so common in the Nicobars, it is like the three species 

 referred to in the diagnosis at once distinguished by the absence 

 of any metallic, blue, or purple patch on the forehead ; from 

 jugularis it is distinguished by the much larger size of its bill, 

 which Jardine gives at 0*7 from forehead to tip, and by the 

 much paler hue of its whole under parts, as well as of its axillary 

 tufts. Of the three species it most closely &^^xoa.Q\\esjugtilaris, 

 and Jardine^s description of this bird " chin, throat, and upper 

 breast, deep steel blue, intensely dark in the centre, and at the 

 sides a few dark brown feathers indicating a h'own terminal hand^* 



