Birds uf Celebes: Timeliidae. 495 



-f * 199. ZOSTEROPS BABELO M.i&Wg. 



Talaut White-eye. 

 Plate XXX. 



Zosterops babelo (1) M. & Wg., Abli. Mus. Dresd. 1895, Nr. 9, jd. 6. 



"Babelo" or "Bambelo", native name, Karkellang, Nat. Coll. 



Adult. Above yellowish olive-green, brighter on the ujDper tail-coverts and forehead; wings 

 and tail dusky, externally edged with the colour- of the upper parts, lighter on 

 primaries; chin and throat oclu-aceous yellow, a small supraloral mark nearly as 

 bright; a broad stripe along the middle of the body, crissum, thighs, under 

 tail-coverts and metacarpal edge suli^hur-yellow, hardly tinged with ochre; sides 

 of breast and of body light smoke-grey; periocular ring white, a slight mark 

 below it and on the lores blackish; under wing-coverts white washed with yellow; 

 legs and feet (in a fresh skin) flesh-colour; bill blackish, pale at base of lower man- 

 dible (Karkellang, autumn, 1896 — C 15384; Nov. 1894, type — C 13850). 



Measurements (2 examples). "Wing (iO, 61 mm; tail 43, 44; tarsus 17; exposed culmen 11, 

 12, from nostril c. S. 



Distribution. Talaut Islands — Karkellang (Nat. Coll.). 



Three specimens of this White-eye — two in the Dresden and one in the 

 Tring Museums — are the only ones known at present. It is a rather large 

 form of its kind, and has its nearest affinities in the following group with a 

 broad . yellow stripe along the body below and the head and back concolorous : 



Z.hasilanica Steere: Basilan, Samar, Leyte, Dinagat, Mindanao, Bongao; 



Z. everetti Tweedd.: Cebu; 



Z. grayi Wall.: Kei Islands; 



Z. aureiventris Hume: Tenasserim to Java, 



Z. mesoxantha Salvad. : Burmah: 



Z. sahadorii M. & Wg. : Engano ; 



Z. albiventris Rchb.: Cape Grenville and the islands of Torres Straits ; 



Z. crissalis Sharp e: New Guinea; 



Z. siquijorensis Bourns & Worces.: Siquijor, Negros. 



Of these the Talaut bird seems to be most like its nearest neighbour, Zosterops 

 basilanica, which was rather insufficiently described by Prof. Steere, but the throat, 

 being described as sulphur-yellow (as the abdomen), and the upper surface dark 

 olive-green should serve to distinguish it from the Talaut form, in which the 

 throat is ochraceous yellow, darker than the sulphur-yellow of the abdomen, etc. 

 and the upper surface yellowish olive-green. 



FAMILY TIMELIIDAE. 



The Timeliidae, or Babblers, might almost be said to consist of any exotic 

 birds, standing near, but which cannot exactly be referred to the Warblers, 



