476 



Birds of Celebes: Nectariniidae. 



Skeleton. 



Length of cranimu . . . 

 Greatest breadth of cranium 

 Length of humerus . . . 



Length of ulna 



Length of radius .... 

 Length of manus .... 

 Length of metacarpus . . 

 Length of digitus I . . . 

 Length of digitus LC . . . 

 Length of digitus III . . 

 Length of femur .... 



Length of tibia 



Length of fiViula .... 



31.5 mm 



12.0 » 



15.7 • 

 19.0 

 17.0 



17.0 • 



9.0 



3.6 



8.2 » 



2.1 • 



13.5 . 



23.0 . 



8.0 . 



Length of tarso- metatarsus 15.0 mm 



Length of digitus I . . . 10.3 



Length of digitus 11 . . . 9.0 ' 



Length of digitus HI . . 13.0 ■ 



Length of digitus IV . . 11.0 



Length of sternum . . . 16.7 » 



Greatest breadth of stei-num 9.5 » 



Height of crista sterni . . 5.6 • 



Length of coracoideum . . 15.0 » 



Length of scapula .... 16.0 » 



Length of clavicula . . . 14.0 



Length of pelvis .... 19.0 



Greatest breadth of pelvis . 11.0 » 



Eggs. "Dr. Platen sent me a sitting of two eggs of this bird from Eurukan in the INIina- 

 hassa. They measure 18 X 13.5 mm. The ground-coloui- is whity-grey, the ground- 

 spots which are distributed over the whole egg are blue-grey. The few superjacent 

 spots are deep black-brown, and amongst them are found a few fine hair-streaks. A 

 circlet of spots is not present; so, too, there is no gloss. The eggs resemble those 

 of A. malaccensis in my collection from Borneo" (Nehrkorn MS.). 



Nest. Four nests in the Dresden Museum belonging to this subspecies much resemble those 

 of the Oelebesian Cyrtostomus frenakts, but have little or no caterpillar excrementa 

 on the outside and are without feathers in any part. A pendant pear-shaped structure 

 of strips of bark, bits of straw, dead leaf, grasses, the long down of seeds, held to- 

 gether with grass-fibres and web of caterpillars or spiders, hned mth finer grasses 

 and seed-down or sometimes a little wool; length 115 — 150 mm, breadth 60 — 75; no 

 waste stuff hanging from the bottom; entrance at the side in the upper half, slightly 

 hooded (Manado — Nrs. 131, 132, 129, 134). 



Distribution. Celebes and the islands off the coast, and Sula: Manado tua, Mantehage and 

 Banka (Nat. Coll. in Dresd. Mus.), Talissi (Hickson h 2), IMinahassa (Wallace g 1, 

 Meyer f 2, etc.), Gorontalo Distr. (Meyer f 2, Guillemard hi), W. Celebes (Do- 

 herty /t''" 5), Togian (Meyer f 2), E. Peninsula (Ribbe and Nat. Coll. in Dresd. 

 Mus.), Kandari, S. E. Peninsula (Beccari d 1), Buton Id. (S. Mliller a 2), S. Pen- 

 insula (Wallace jr i, Meyer f 2, Platen f 5, Guillem. hi, Weber /" 7, etc.), Sula 

 Islands (Allen b 1, f I, g 1), Peling and Banggai (Nat. Coll. A*"* 5). 



Observation. From Sula only a single female specunen in the British Museum has been 

 definitely recorded (g 1). The Flores specimens, obtained by Wallace, Capt. 

 Shelley remarks after the publication of his article on A. cdebensts, "I am now con- 

 vinced should belong to this species" (Introd. p. XLV); their perfect identity with it 

 appears to us, however, doubtful. Biittikofej- (Notes L. M. 1892, 194, 201; Zool. Erg. 

 Weber's Reise IH, 300) does not unite his Flores and Sumba specimens with cele- 

 bensis, but with malaccensis. Hartert identifies Simiba bu-ds with those of Celebes, 

 but not so Sumbawan birds. If they lie midway between these two races, they may 

 be indicated as A. malaccensis — celebensis, or, if they represent a new hue of de- 

 parture, some other method of nomenclature must be found. 



Of the voice, habits etc. of A. celebensis nothing pecuhar is known, and it is haidly 

 likely that they differ much from those of the typical form. 



