1843.] Mr. BlytKs Report for December Meeting, 1842. 979 



Alleged breeding plumage of the female as unlike that of the male as 

 in N. Zeylonica, wherein it would differ remarkably from N. Mahrat- 

 tensis. Inhabits Southern India and Ceylon. 



N. jugularis, Vieillot, apud Jardine ; or a closely allied species, 

 perhaps distinguishable upon actual comparison from the Philippine 

 bird cited. Length about four inches and one-eighth, of wing two 

 inches and one-sixteenth, and tail an inch and one-eighth ; bill to 

 forehead five-eighths of an inch, and tarse under half an inch. Colour 

 of the upper-parts dull olive- green, brightening a little on the rump : 

 beneath moderately bright king's-yellow ; and the axillary tuft intense 

 yellow with flame-colour anteriorly : throat and front of the neck very 

 dark glossy purple, margined laterally and at the gorget with bright 

 steel-purple, below which is a trace of a narrow cross-band of dark 

 red. Bill and feet dusky. Female similar, except in wanting the 

 axillary tuft, and having the throat and fore-neck yellow, like the rest 

 of the lower-parts ; but one of three specimens (probably an old female, 

 rather than a male in undress,) has the middle of the throat and front 

 of the neck dusky, flanked with yellow. All have the tail blackish, 

 and its outermost feathers tipped with purer white than is usual in 

 this genus, this successively decreasing in quantity on the two or three 

 next. Common in the Tenasserim provinces. 



Certain species with straighter and less prolonged bills constitute 

 the division Anthreptes, Swainson. Nect. Javanica, Horsfleld, is cited 

 as an example, and it is from this species that the diagnosis is evidently 

 drawn up ; for in the Tenasserim and Malayan species formerly re- 

 ferred by me to rectirostris, Auct, but which would now appear to be 

 different, the bill is still shorter and less curved, the upper mandible 

 is at least as high as broad at base, where its upper ridge is continued 

 sharp to the forehead. I will designate it 



Anihr. phcenicotis.* Length four inches and a quarter, of which the 

 bill to forehead measures half an inch, and the tail an inch and three- 

 quarters ; wing two inches and one-eighth ; and tarse eleven-sixteenths 

 of an inch. Upper parts a glossy bronzed green, including the crown 

 and wing-coverts; upper tail-coverts glossy green without the bronz- 

 ing ; rest of the wings and tail dusky, the feathers of the latter 



* I see that Temminck has already applied to it the identical specific name, term- 

 ing it Nectarinia phcenicotis, p. c. 108, f. 1, and 338, f. % apud Diet. Class. 



