The adult male and female here figured and described were collected at Pabyai, in the 

 Mergui district, by Mr. Davison, and were kindly lent to me by Mr. Hume. I have also 

 examined the specimens collected by Captain Beavan at Moulmein and the Salween river, and 

 an adult male from Tongoo, on the Sittang river, Burmah, in the Marquis of Tweeddale's 

 collection, all of which undoubtedly belong to the present species. 



Since writing the above, Mr. Oates has most kindly forwarded to me for inspection six 

 specimens of this rare Sun-bird, collected by him in Lower Pegu, Rangoon, Sittang, Moulmein, 

 and South Tenasserim. Five of these are males in apparently full plumage ; and four of these 

 agree perfectly with the description I have above given of an adult male from Pabyai. In one 

 of the specimens from Rangoon the bases of the scarlet feathers on the lower throat are white, 

 while in a South-Tenasserim specimen this part is dusky black with a narrow white subterminal 

 bar, and the two other specimens are somewhat intermediate in this respect. Now in the fifth 

 male specimen, also from South Tenasserim, the base of the scarlet feathers is dusky black with 

 obsolete and barely to be distinguished pale subterminal bars ; so that the colouring of the base 

 of the feathers is undoubtedly of no specific value. This fifth specimen, however, has other 

 differences, already pointed out to me by Mr. Oates: the metallic portions of the forehead and 

 crown are deep metallic violet only very faintly glossed with the green shade which is the pre- 

 dominant colour of that part in the other specimens ; and the upper tail-coverts also are more 

 strongly glossed with violet. I feel, however, quite confident that these characters are not of 

 specific value, but only seasonal, or the effect of moult. 



The most reliable characters, therefore, to distinguish this bird from JE. siparaja is the narrow 

 uniform metallic violet moustachial streak, and from 2E. seherm the shortness of the bill. 



The sixth specimen sent by Mr. Oates, from Sittang, is a female, and agrees with the speci- 

 men I described above from Pabyai, excepting in its being slightly browner and less olive on the 

 upper parts, and with no signs of red margins to any of the least or median series of wing- 

 coverts. According to the label, it measured in the flesh — " total length 4 - 2 inches, expanse 6*1, 

 bill from gape 0-75, wing 1-94, tail 1-35, tarsus 0-51." 



2f 



