Birds of Celebes: Nectariniidae. 457 



male; only a few yellow feathers on the rump; under jjarts paler yellow mixed with 

 orange (Tabukan, [cf imm.], Meyer — Nr. 8475). 



Young. Above like the female, but browner and duller; rump and upper tail-coverts 

 yellowish olive; below pale yeUow, with some obscure dusky tips on chin, throat and 

 sides of breast, almost forming faint bars on the throat (Tabukan, juv. Nr. 8476). 



Measurements. (13 males) wing 54.5—58.5 mm; tail 32—38; cuhnen from feathers of fore- 

 head 17 — 18; tarsus 17—18; (2 females) wing 51.5 — 52; tail 29; culmen 16—16.2; 

 tarsus 16 (W. Blasius 3). 



A fully adult female in the Dresden Museum (that described above) measures: 

 wing 56.5; tail 34; tarsus 17; bill fr. feath. foreh. 18. It appears, therefore, that 

 Count Salvador! and Prof. Blasius are in error in describing the female as smaller 

 than the male, and from the descriptions of these ornithologists, also, we infer that 

 the specimens before them were immatiu-e. Three immature specimens before us are 

 distinguishable from the old female by their smaller bills, besides by the lu-owner tint 

 of their heads, necks, and mantles, and in two cases by the paler yellow of their 

 under-parts. 



Distribution. Great Sangi (v. Duivenbode a 1, Hoedt a 1, Meyer a 2, Bruijn hi, 

 Platen c 3). 



This species appears to be intermediate between Aethopi/pa shellei/i Sharp e 

 of Palawan and Balabac and Eudrepanis pulcherrima Sharpe of Basilan near 

 Mindanao and Samar and E. jeffer^i Grant of North Luzon (Ibis 1895, 111, 

 pi. V). The adult male of the first-named differs by its long, graduated tail, 

 red mantle (as well as sides of head and neck), long moustachial stripe of red 

 and metallic blue, and its non-metallic wing-coverts; the latter differs by its steel- 

 blue ear-coverts and sinciput (not entire crown of head), the olive- green of the 

 rest of the head and neck, the red jugulum, and short tail. Capt. Shelley 

 places the Sangi bird in Sharpe's genus Eudrepanis, of which E. pulcherrima is 

 the type. Count Salvador i shows that the broad yellow band across the rump 

 leaves no doubt as to the affinity of the Sangi species with Aethopyga; but adds 

 that on the other hand its tail being only a little graduated, and the middle 

 rectrices not much lengthened, the metallic coppery of the wings, and the 

 throat yellow like the under-parts remove it from the typical species of Aetko- 

 pyga and make it a form intermediate between the genus Aethopyga and the 

 genera Anthothreptes and Chalcoparia. 



GENUS CYRTOSTOMUS Cab. 



In this group the metallic colours of the male are restricted to the chin, 

 throat, and sometimes the pileum; the upper surface is olive, — browner, greener, 

 or yellower according to the species, the under parts chiefly yellow, when not 

 black. The culmen is about half as long again as the cranium, and more de- 

 curved than in Hermotimia and Eudrepanis, the nasal operculum bare, the tail 

 moderate, slightly rounded. 



Cyrtostomus is found from North Australia as far as Burmah and Hainan. 



Meyer ,t Wiglesworth, Birds of Celebes ['Sow sih |S!17). 58 



