very slightly tinted with lilac, of which, however, there is never a trace in C. aspasioides, and the 

 measurements also show that it is referable to this species. 



The specimens with the most golden shade on the crown were shown to me by Count 

 Salvadori from the islands of Koffiao and Salvatti, and from Sorong, on the north-western 

 peninsula of New Guinea. Those with the deepest green shade on the crown come from the 

 Aru Islands, and were in consequence described as distinct by Count Salvadori under the title 

 of Chalcostetha chlorocephala. I cannot, however, detect any specific distinction between the 

 type specimen of C. chlorocephala and Cinnyris aspasice ; for the crown has such a mere shade 

 more greyish green that it is next to impossible to distinguish it from some specimens from the 

 mainland of New Guinea, and the throat is metallic lilac, strongly shaded with blue on the 

 sides, the metallic portions of the wings and back being perfectly identical with true C, 

 aspasice. In the British Museum I have examined a specimen from the Aru Islands collected 

 by Mr. Wallace, in which the crown is of a considerably more emerald green ; and in this respect 

 it differs more widely from the type of C. chlorocephala than that bird does from C. aspasice ; and, 

 further, it differs in having the entire throat uniform metallic lilac. 



The shade of colouring of the metallic throat is not a constant character in C. aspasice ; and 

 I find this uniform lilac throat also present in the specimens I examined from Koffiao Island. 

 Thus we find a specimen from Koffiao agreeing perfectly, as regards this character, with a 

 specimen from the Aru Islands ; but those very two examples are the ones which differ most in 

 the colouring of their crowns. I have come to the conclusion that neither the colour of the 

 crown nor that of the throat are perfectly constant in this species, and that the crown may vary 

 from golden green to emerald-green, and the throat may vary from steel-blue, only slightly 

 shaded with lilac, to pure lilac. 



The bluer-throated specimens appear generally to be found on the mainland of New Guinea 

 and on the Duke-of-York Island, the latter a locality from whence Mr. Sclater has recently 

 received an adult male and female and a young male. According to Count Salvadori (Att. R. 

 Ace. Torino, xii. p. 303), these specimens from the Duke-of-York Island should not be referred 

 to C. aspasice ; for, he observes, the male does not agree exactly with any of the numerous 

 specimens examined by him of this species. I myself have also compared it with Dorey specimens 

 and can find no distinctive characters whatever in the plumage or measurements of the adult 

 male. The female and young male are certainly rather bright on the underparts, but differ in 

 no other respect from similar specimens of C. aspasice. The most that in my opinion can be 

 said with regard to these specimens is that they may belong to a race in which the plumage of 

 the female and young bird is possibly constantly paler and brighter than in the typical Dorey 

 race. Under any circumstances its distinctive characters are not so well marked as in many of 

 the races of Indian Sun-birds, such as C. intermedins and C. brevirostris, which I refer to races of 

 G. asiaticus, or the Indian and Ceylon races of C. zeylonicus and C. lotenius, which have never 

 yet been separated. 



In the above article Count Salvadori further gives some interesting notes upon the plumages 

 of sixteen specimens from Dorey, Mansinam, Krudu, Sorong, Salvatti, and Koffiao, and remarks 

 that the bird collected by DAlbertis at Naiabui, on the Fly River, is referred by that gentleman 

 ('The Sydney Mail,' 1877, p. 248) to C. aspasice. Count Salvadori, however, still retains that 



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