

494 Birds of Celebes: Zosteropidae. 



When this is done, but not before, it will be possible to obtain a ready 

 and sound grasp of the sort of facts which the 125 "species" of the genus 

 Zosterops really place before us. At present they are 125 disconnected items, 

 with which no one with a smaller amount of material before him than that in 

 the British Museum can safely meddle. 



-1^*198. ZOSTEROPS ANOMALA M.«S:Wg. 



Anomalous White-eye. 

 Plate XXX. 



Zosterops anomala (1) M. &Wg., Abb. Mus. Dresd. 189G, Nr. I, p. 12; (2) Hart, Nov. 

 Zool. 1896, 149, 153; (3) id., ib. 1897, 157. 



Diagnosis. Like Z. sarasinortdii, but mtbout the wbite periocular ring; a space of bare dark 

 skin round the eye, enclosed by an incomplete ring (not meeting posteriorly) of black 

 feathers, the body below greyish white, not washed with yellow. 



Adult. Above yellowish ohve-green, brighter on the rump and head; base of forehead and 

 supraloral region yellowish; feather-ring round the naked periocular ring 

 black, the white ring characteristic of the genus wanting, indicated only by a few 

 minute white points; chin, throat, and under tail-coverts lemon-yellow with a 

 slight tinge of ochre most i)ronounced on the under tail-coverts; remaining under 

 parts silky wliite, wth a shade of smoke-grey most pronounced on the breast and 

 sides; thighs whitish; flanks greenish, passing into the yellow of the under tail- 

 coverts; metacarpal edge yellow; under wing-coverts wliitish: "iiis pale brown; 

 feet pale bluish grey; beak black, base of mandible pale" — Doherty {(f, type, 

 Macassar, 21. VII. 95: Sarasin Coll.). 



Female. Does not differ from the male in coloration (2, Loka, S. Gel., 9. X. 95, P. & F. S.J. 



Measurements. Wing 56 — 57 mm; tail 45 — 47; tarsus 16.5; exposed cidmen 11.5 — 12, from 

 nostril 8. 



Distribution. South and S. W. Central Celebes: Macassar (P. & F. Sarasin 1), Mt. Bonthain 

 neighbom-hood up to 4000 ft. (P.&F. S., Everett 2, Doherty .3), Marangka, Maros 

 Peak (P. & F. S. 1), Eni-ekang and Mount Loko near Bungi, S. W. Central Celebes 

 (P. & F. S. 1). An example, believed by the Drs. Sarasin to belong to this species, 

 was obtained by them at Kendari in S. E. Celebes, but unfortunately was lost. 



This little bird is a true White-eye in every respect except that it wants 

 the very character from which its fellows take their name — the ring of small 

 white feathers round the eye. It belongs to the same group as Z. sarasinorum, 

 of which the Indian Z. palpehrosa may be regarded as the type, in which the chin 

 and throat are yellow and the body below greyish or whitish. A ring of minute 

 whitish points (obviously undeveloped feathers) is to be made out in most 

 specimens of Z. anomala in the ring of featherless blackish skin round the eye. 

 It is hardly to be doubted that they are the vestiges of the usual white eye-ring 

 of the Zosteropidae. 



