iS6 Novelties. — Sjjilomis minimus.. 



ly tipped with yellowish white. The lower surface of the quills 

 grey, wliitish at the hase with broad blackish brown tips, with 

 a broad bar of the same color about 1*5 inches higher up, and 

 faint freckled traces of a similar bar near the base. The second 

 to the sixth primaries are conspicuously emargnnate on the outer 

 web, that of the second primary concealed by the coverts, and 

 traces of a similar emargination on the seventh. The first four 

 primaries festooned, but not deeply so on the inner web. The 

 wing liniug- mostly white, but mottled more or less with some- 

 what rufescent brown, especially about the carpal joint, and along 

 the ulua. 



The upper surface of the young bird is similar, but the white 

 bases of the crest shew through conspicuously, and all the occi- 

 pital and nuchal feathers are broadly fringed with pale rufescent, 

 or buff. The tail feathers are a yellowish brown, the broad dark 

 bars only faintly marked. The coverts, scapulars, and upper 

 tail coverts, show but few of the white tippings conspicuous, 

 especially about the shoulder of the wing, in the more adult bird. 

 The chin, throat, and upper breast are much as in the adult, but 

 the lower breast, abdomen, sides, and flanks, and the longer 

 lower tail coverts and most of the tibial plumes are a dingy yel- 

 lowish or buffy white, entirely unspotted, only a few feathers on 

 the sides ; a few of the tibial plumes, and a few feathers about 

 the vent are new feathers, and resemble those of the adult. I 

 may add that one of the central tail feathers is also like those of 

 the adult. The entire wing lining is yellowish white, shading 

 into pale rufescent or salmon color along the ulna, and on the 

 axillaries. Two or three of the coverts along the ulna exhibit ill- 

 defined brown bars or spots towards the tips. Lower surface of 

 the quills differ conspicuously from those of the adult ; the tips 

 are much less dark, and above these the first primary exhibits 

 two, and the others three, fairly well marked dark brown trans- 

 verse bars. 



This bird is very closely allied, apparently, to nfij^edns, Grould, 

 and I at one time thought that it might belong to this species, 

 and that my supposed adult might be in an intermediate _ stage 

 between the old and young birds figured by Mr. Gould (Birds of 

 Asia, pt. XII.) ; but my bird of the year is totally diff'erent to the 

 young bird he figures, and my adult with a perfectly black crest, 

 and to judge from bill and feet and texture of plumage, any- 

 thing but a young bird, has not the faintest trace of rufous 

 either on breast or nape. Moreover, the arrangement of the 

 bands on the tail in both old and young in nifipechts, differs con- 

 spicuously from that in the tails of both my birds old and young. 

 In both species the extreme tip of the tail is white or whitish. 



