Birds of Celebes: Meliphagidae. 



479 



ceous; sides, abdomen and under tail-coverts greyish brown, washed with ful- 

 vous; under wing-coverts and inner edging of quills white, (q^, Rurukan Mina- 

 hassa, 14. Vm. 84: Platen in Mus. Nehrkorn, Nr. 952). Iris brown; bill black; 

 feet grey (Platen). 



Female. Smaller than the male. Above olive-brown, rather brighter on the forehead and 

 rump; wings and tail blackish, with warm brown margms to the feathers; chin and 

 ear-coverts brown, touched up with scarlet; throat drab-brown, becoming darker 

 and more olivaceous on the breast, and paling into brownish buff on the remaining 

 under-parts; under wing-coverts and basal part of inner webs of quills white. 

 (9, Rurukan, 25. IX. 94: Sarasin Coll.) 



"Legs and feet grey, the latter below yellowish; bill black, base of lower man- 

 dible yellow; iris dark" (P.&F. S.). 



Remark. A specimen in adult male dress, but labelled as a female, is described by 

 Salvadori (4) who beheves the sex indicated to rest upon an error; and the same 

 seems to be the case with the bird described as a female by Bruggemann, a 

 specimen in nearly adult male dress. 



Young male. Like the female {(f, Djampea, XII. 95: Everett — C 15149). 



_ _ _ i BiU from 



measurements. 



Wing 



Tail 



Tarsus I feath. of 

 I forehead 



a. (Mus. Nehrk. Nr. 952) cf ad. Rurukan 54 37 13 14 



b. (Mus. Nehrk. Nr. 953) [Q] Rurukan 51 38-14 13 



c. (Nr. 1974) [(f] ad. Minahassa 57 37 | 14 



d. (0 418) [cf] ad. Manado, HI. 71 59 40 j 15 



Three additional adult males from the Minahassa in the Sarasin Coll. have 

 the wing 56 — 57 mm; two females, wing 52, 53; one (f ad. Loka, S. Cel. (Sarasin 

 Coll.) wing 56; one cT ad. Saleyer Id. (Ev. C 15147) wing 55; one $, Saleyer, wing 52. 

 Variation. From North Celebes two of the adult males in the Sarasin Collection in good 

 fresh plumage (March) have the wing-coverts, scapulars and tail sooty blackish, a httle 

 browner in the one than in the other. The third male, probably less adult, but also 

 in more worn plumage (October), has the wing-coverts, scapulars and tail browner. 

 Another adult male (C 418) in worn plumage (March) is more sooty than the last. 



South Celebes. The adult male in the Sarasin Collection is in slightly worn 

 plumage (Loka, October). The colour of the wing-coverts, scapulars and tail cannot 

 be termed sooty, but dull dark sepia. 



Saleyer. A male in good plumage (Nov.) is shghtly sooty and a shade darker 

 than the above South Celebes male on the parts in question, and about as dark as 

 the palest example from North Celebes. A female in worn plumage (Nov.) is much 

 paler and greyer above and paler below than two females from N. Celebes. 



Djampea. A young male in changing plumage (Dec.) is very much darker 

 above, being darker than the females from N. Celebes. 



Distribution. Celebes and the islands to the south: Minahassa (Meyer 1, 7, Bruijn 4, 

 Fischer .5, Platen, Sarasins 11); S. Peninsula — Bonthain Mts. (Weber 10, 

 Everett 12, Sarasins, Dohcrty 13); Saleyer and Djampea (Everett 12). 



This Honey-sucker has as yet been found only at the two extreme ends 

 of the Island of Celebes; it was discovered by Meyer in the Minahassa in the 

 north, in which district only a small number of specimens have been obtained, 

 and now recently it has turned up at Loka near Bonthain at the extremity of 



