Birds of Celebes: Neotarlniidae. 4gl 



The species, as a whole, may be described as follows: 



Adult male. Upper surface and sides of head yellowish olive-green; superciliary and 

 rictal stripe yellowish, quills dusky, edged with olive-green; tail black, the three 

 outer feathers tipped with white, about 7—10 mm broad in the outermost; chin, 

 throat and chest metallic purplish blue-black; remaining under parts dark yellow, 

 axillaries brighter; under wing-coverts straw-yellow (Passim, New Guinea, (j', 

 June 1873: Meyer — 275). 



Female. Like the male, but chin, thi-oat and chest yellow like the other under parts (Dore, 

 2 : Meyer — Nr. 8486, and others). 



Young. Like the female, but washed with drab above, and paler yellow below (Manado tua, 

 8. rV. 93, Nat. Coll.: 12220). Bill and feet black. Iris drab [Q, New Britain: 

 Richards), brown ((f, Minahassa and S. Celebes: Platen /,• I and in Mus. Nehrk.j, 

 red (Celebes: Meyer h 3), brown (N. Celebes, Guillem. g 1). 



Measurements. Wing 49—58 mm, tail 31 — 44, bill 17—21, tarsus 12.5—15. 



Eggs. "The fretmtus-eggs in my collection form 3 types, which deviate greatly from one 

 another, a. From Batjan are of a grey-yellow ground, with spots differing Uttle fi'om 

 the ground-colour distributed equally over the entire egg. At the blunt end only a 

 few black hair-lines are to be found, b. From Batjan are of a grey-brown ground, 

 with similar washed out spots, very isolated black streaks are also to be seen, 

 c. The eggs from Duke of York differ essentially from the others. They have indeed 

 the same ground-colour, but the black and black-brown spots are sharply marked and 

 form a circlet at the large end. Measurements: 16 — 17 X 11.5 — 12 mm" (Nehrk., MS.). 

 In Batjan the bird lays as many as 4 eggs. Two eggs fi-om Aru (out of 

 different nests Nr. 1529, 1531) ajiparently correspond with Nehrkorn's type b, and 

 call to mind the eggs of the Sedge Warbler, Acrocephalus phragmitis. 



In North Australia the egg is pear-shaped, generally and equally mottled 

 with obscure dirty brown on a greenish grey ground (Gould, Hb. B. Austr. 1865, I, 

 585); two at a sitting, greenish grey ground-colour, almost obscured by freckles and 

 dashes of hght brown (North, Nests & Eggs B. Austr. 1889, 232). 



Nest. Four nests of this species from Celebes in the Dresden Museum (Nrs. 125, 126, 127, 

 128) are of an oval inverted shape, length 130 — 140 mm (not counting some pendulous 

 stuff in one case wliich would add 60 mm to the length), breadth 50 — 60 mm, entrance 

 by a hole in the upper half. One nest is attached to a hanging twig passing down 

 through it like a backbone, a second is suspended fi-om a hanging plant-stalk, a thii-d 

 fastened to an upright thin plant- stalk bearing the dry seed-heads of a Composita 

 or such hke, which are worked into the body of the nest. Externally a great variety 

 of materials disorderly arranged are found — masses of the dry excrementa of 

 spiders or caterpillars entangled in the web, strips of bark, dead leaves, cotton, 

 feathers, plant-fibres, grasses, a fragment of shirting ; well lined with cotton, feathers 

 — chiefly white ones — and in one case with many black, hau--lLke fibres of the 

 -sugar palm (Arenga saccharifera). Two nests from Aru differ from those of Celebes 

 in being much longer (170—200 mm), and lighter in colour owing to the smaller 

 amount of spiders' excrementa and the external structure chiefly being of grey strips 

 of bark, leaf skeletons, cotton and grasses. No feathers — a strong feature in the 

 Celebes ones — are to be found in the lining or walls of these nests. One is sus- 

 pended among thin roots; the original support of the other is gone. In one a well 

 formed hood over the opening is seen (Nr.l529, 1531). One from Port Denison is of an oval 

 fonn, with a small hood over the opening which is neai- the top ; composed of fibrous 



