Novelties. — ArachnecJdhra midamanica. 405 



is peculiarly appropriate so far as the passage in italics is con- 

 cerned, only it should he here noticed that the outermost por- 

 tion of the metallic throat and breast patch, has a decidedly 

 steel green and not a steel blue lustre ; ivova. frenata it differs by 

 the almost entire absence in the adult male in full plumage of 

 any yellow supercilium, or trace of yellow on the cheeks, by its 

 reddish or olive brown pectoral band, and by the much paler hue 

 of the under parts ; frova flammaxillaris it differs by its much longer 

 bill, by its much paler lower breast and abdomen, by the 

 axillary tuft being pale gamboge yellow, without a tinge of 

 flame color, or orange, and by the dark pectoral band being olive 

 brown, with only in some specimens a slight reddish tinge, 

 instead of dark red. 



We obtained this species in every part of the Andaman group. 

 We have specimens from every station about Port Blair, from the 

 Jolly Boys, Macpherson^s Strait, from Stewart Sound between 

 N. and M. Andaman, from Little Button in the Archipelago, 

 from Narcondam, from both the great and little Cocos, and from 

 Preparis. We never once observed it in any portion of the Nico- 

 bar group, every island of which we visited, and throughout 

 which A. pectoralis, Horsf., abounds. The following are the 

 dimensions, taken in the flesh, and description of this new species : 



Males, length, 4*5 to 5 ; expanse, 6' 5 to 7 ; wing, 2' 1 to 3" 15 ; 

 tail, from vent, 1'4 to 1'75 ; tarsus, 0*5 to 0'63 ; bill from gape, 

 0*9 to 1 ; bill at front, 0*8 to 0-87 ; wings, when closed, reach 

 to within 0*75 to 0*85 of end of tail. 



Females, length, 4*4 to 4-7 ; expanse, 6*25 to 6*5 ; wing, 

 1-82 to 2-02 ; tail, from vent, 1-22 to 1-4 ; tarsus, 0*55 ; bill 

 from gape, 0*97 ; bill at front, 0*75 to 0'8 ; wings, when closed, 

 reach to within 0*62 of end of tail. 



Description. — Bill, legs, and feet, black; irides, deep brown. 

 Male in full breeding plumage ; whole upper parts, including 

 sides of head and neck and wings, hair brown, darkest on the 

 quills ; the feathers of the wings narrowly margined on their 

 exterior webs with olive green, and the rest of the feathers, more 

 or less tinged, or suffused with this color. The amount of this 

 tinging varies very much in various specimens, in some there 

 is only a trace of this, in others it almost entirely hides the 

 brown. In fact the difference is as great as between the summer 

 and winter plumage in some of the Phylloscopi ; in some speci- 

 mens there is more green on the rump, in others the tinge is 

 decidedly brightest on the head and interscapulary regions ; some 

 birds almost entirely want this tinge, and these have absolute- 

 ly no trace of a supercilium, others again, in which the green 

 tinge is more marked, killed as a rule towards the middle or 



