U4 



reliquo subtus pallide flavo : subalaribus et reinigibus intus albis, margine carpali flavido : rostro et 

 pedibus nigris : iride saturate brunnea. 



Hab. in insulis Papuanis. 



Adult Male. Black, with a deep-blue gloss; entire crown metallic emerald green; least and median series 

 of wing-coverts, scapulars, lower back, upper tail-coverts, and edges of the tail-feathers rich metallic 

 green, barely tinged with blue ; some of the outer greater wing-coverts partially edged with metallic 

 bluish green ; chin and throat lilac-shaded steel-blue ; bill and legs black ; irides dark brown. Total 

 length 4'2 inches, culmen 065, wing 24, tail 1*5, tarsus 06. 



Adult Female. Upper part of the head and back of the neck dark ashy grey ; sides of the head paler ; back, 

 scapulars, and upper tail-coverts olive ; wings brown, the feathers broadly edged with olive, which, on 

 the quills, has a slightly yellower shade ; tail black, the feathers partially margined with olive, and 

 with pale ends to all but the centre ones ; chin and throat ashy white ; breast and under tail-coverts 

 pale yellow, slightly tinted with olive ; under wing-coverts and inner margins of the quills white, shaded 

 with sulphur-yellow on the primary joint ; bill and legs black ; irides dark brown. Total length 4 - l 

 inches, culmen OG5, wing 2 - l, tail 1"4, tarsus 06. 



Male in moult. Similar in plumage to the female, but with a steel-blue streak down each side of the throat ; 

 upper tail-coverts mottled with metallic green ; tail black, the feathers partially margined with metallic 

 green. 



Hab. Waigiou, Kottiao, Mysol, Salwatti, Aru Islands, and New Guinea, and eastward to the Duke-of-York 

 Island. 



The present species, the most widely spread of the " Hermotimia'''' group, belongs to that section 

 of the Black Sun-birds in which the metallic portions of the lower back are green. It has the 

 scapulars and median series of wing-coverts metallic, and may thus be distinguished from 

 C. proserpince, C. nigroscapularis, and C. salvadorii. From C. maforensis it may be separated by 

 the green instead of golden colour of the crown, and from C.jobiensis and C. mysorensis by the 

 metallic portions of the wings and back being distinctly less shaded with steel-blue; and, more- 

 over, it differs from the latter bird by the metallic throat not descending so far down towards 

 the chest. 



It appears to me that C. aspasioides is the nearest allied species ; and it approaches so near 

 to some specimens of this bird that it is not without some hesitation that I now keep them 

 distinct. The characters by which C. aspasioides may be recognized from the present species 

 are given in my article upon that bird, the most marked perhaps of them being the greater 

 length of the culmen and tail, and the throat being pure steel-blue with no shade whatever 

 of lilac. 



Although I have recognized many nearly allied forms as distinct, species, yet I cannot deny 

 that the present one is still somewhat variable in the shade of colouring of the crown and throat. 



It has been collected by Mr. Wallace in the islands of Waigiou and Mysol. From the former 

 locality I have not been able to examine specimens; from the latter island there are in the 

 British Museum several typically coloured specimens, as well as one which more nearly 

 approaches C. aspasioides than any other example that I have yet seen ; it has the throat only 



