Birds of Celebes: Zosteropidae. 485 



^^* 192. ZOSTEROPS SQUAMIOEPS (Hart.). 



Aberrant White-eye. 

 Plate XXIX. 



a. Chlorocharis squamiceps (1) Hartert, Nov. Zool. 1896, m, 70; (2) id., t. c. 153. 



Zosterops squamiceps (1) Hart., Nov. Zool. 1897, 157. 



Adult. Above olivaceous green, brighter on rump and wing -edgings; feathers of head 

 above blackish with whitish shaft-streaks and terminal edges of silvery grey, forehead 

 shghtly oHvaceous; lores olive whitish; a small space below and behind the eye bare, 

 around the eye a thin ring of minute white plumulae; ear-coverts silvery grey 

 with a yellowish gloss; chin and throat greyish white, with blackish subterminal 

 edges to the feathers; remaining under parts yellowish olive-green, greyer on sides 

 of breast, clearing to sulphiu'-yellow on middle of lower breast, on abdomen and 

 under tail-coverts; under wing-coverts whitish; "bill black, feet brown" (Hartert i); 

 wing 66 mm; tail 49; tarsus 20; middle toe and claw 17; bill from nostril 9.5 ((j^, 

 Pasoso, Bonthain Peak, 6000 feet, Oct. 1895: Everett — C 14890). 



Female or immature. Head above more olive -brown, the silvery grey terminal edgings 

 not extending beyond the crown, all the feathers of head above with blackish sub- 

 terminal edgings; breast browner, yellow of under parts less extensive (9, label as 

 in (^, C 14891). Possibly this example is immature, as Mr. Hartert (1) says there 

 seem to be no sexual differences. 



Distribution. South Celebes — Mount Bonthain (Everett a 1, a 2, Doherty 1). 



One of the best of the discoveries of Mr. Everett in South Celebes is the 

 present species, which came into the careful hands of Mr. E. Hartert, who 

 detected its true relationships. At first sight its affinities are not apparent; this 

 is due to the peculiar squamous appearance of the feathering of the head. But, 

 put a similar squamous head on Zosterops javanica (Horsf.), and you have Z. 

 squamiceps (Hartert)! A form perhaps still more nearly allied is Zosterops 

 squamifrons Sharpe, described from Mt. Dulit, Borneo, which, as its name 

 betokens, has a squamous appearance on the forehead. In some ways Zosterops 

 squamiceps recalls certain of the Honey -eaters, for instance, Glycyphila, but it 

 would be dangerous to speak of it as a possible connecting-link between the 

 Zosteropidae and Meliphagidae, as its wing is that of a true Zosterops, and therefore 

 quite unlike that of Glycyphila. Indeed, we cannot find any point of structural 

 difference capable of description by which Z. squamiceps may be separated from 

 other species of Zosterops; it also has the white periocular ring, though this is 

 inconspicuous. 



A form of Zosterops, more aberrant in our opinion than Z. squamiceps, is 

 the bird named by Dr. Sharpe Chlorocharis emiliae. In describing it Sharpe 

 (Ibis 1886, 392, pi. XI) overlooked its true affinities and made it a new genus 

 of the Timeliidae, standing near Cyanoderma and Mixornis; with these however, 

 as Hartert remarks, it has "no resemblance in the wing-formula, no resemblance 

 in the structure of the plumage, nor any in coloration, form of tail, etc. In 

 fact the structure almost entirely agrees with that of the genus Zosterops". The 



