938 Mr. BlytKs Report for December Meeting, 1842. [No. 143. 



Sitta formosa, Nobis. This very beautiful bird appears to present 

 no sufficient distinction upon which it could be separated from the 

 ordinary Nuthatches, though the style of colouring of its upper-parts 

 is peculiar, and its size also is comparatively large : the relative length of 

 its wing-primaries may, however, be different ; but these were in process 

 of renewal in the specimen before me. Length about seven inches and 

 a half, of wing four inches, and tail two inches and a quarter; bill to 

 forehead (through the frontal plumes) seven-eighths of an inch ; tarse 

 three-quarters of an inch ; and hind-toe and claw an inch. Colour of 

 the upper-parts black, beautifully variegated with different shades of 

 ultramarine-blue ; the scapularies and rump verdigris ; and the wing- 

 coverts and tertiaries elegantly margined with white at their tips: 

 under-parts bright rusty -fulvous, somewhat paler on the breast, and 

 inclining to albescent on the throat: the frontal feathers are tipped 

 with white, and around the eye also is whitish, continued backward as 

 an ill-defined supercilium tinged with fulvous posterior to the eye: 

 crown and back deep black, each feather tipped with brilliant ultra- 

 marine, forming large and pointed triangular spots ; on the back these 

 incline more to verdigris, and are dilute and whitish over the shoulder : 

 wing-coverts black, with strongly contrasting terminal white margins 

 as described, and more or less laterally edged, as are also the large 

 alars, with bright lavender-blue, which likewise appears within the 

 white margin of the tertiaries, and tips their inner-webs ; middle tail- 

 feathers lavender-blue, with black mesial line, the rest black edged ex- 

 ternally with blue, and tipped with duller blue, the outermost having a 

 large white spot at the extremity of its inner web, and the next a smaller 

 terminal spot of the same. " Irides dark : bill blackish, the lower 

 mandible pale underneath : and legs greenish horny, with yellow soles." 



Kitta venatorius (var. ?). Entirely resembles the ordinary K. vena- 

 tortus in form and proportions, but the colour beautiful deep sea-green, 

 the head a more yellowish-green, and a distinct tinge of yellow on 

 the sides of the forehead, above the broad black streak through the 

 eyes; wings sanguineous, brightest on the secondaries and outer 

 margin of the tertiaries, the latter having the subterminal black bands 

 and verdigris tips strongly defined. " Iris hazel ; legs, bill, and eye- 

 lids, vermillion." The rump of this most beautiful specimen inclines 

 a little to the usual verdigris-blue of the species, and there is also a 



