1846.] or Little Known Species of Birds. 35 



(Wagler). Head, neck, and lower-parts, pure silky-white; the wings 

 wholly shining black ; the scapularies and interscapularies pale satiny- 

 brown ; the rump, vent, upper and lower tail- coverts, deep ferruginous ; 

 and the tail black, with more than half of its outermost feather ferru- 

 ginous, and the rest successively less deeply tipped with ferruginous to 

 the middle pair : .bill yellow, with the base of the lower mandible livid 

 blue ; and legs (apparently) orpiment-yellow. Length approaching to 

 nine inches ; of wing four inches and a quarter to four and a half ; and 

 tail three and a quarter to three and a half ; bill to gape nearly an inch 

 and a quarter ; and tarse an inch. From the Nicobar Islands. 



To the same genus, Sturnia of Lesson, must be referred the Pastor 

 malayensis, Eyton, P. Z. S. 1839, p. 103 ; but as an aberrant species, with 

 the bill short, and approximating that oiCalornis, — more slender, however, 

 than in that genus, and having the outline of its upper mandible less curv- 

 ed. Length about seven inches and a quarter, of wing four and one-eighth, 

 and tail two and a quarter ; bill to gape seven- eighths, and tarse an 

 inch. Head, neck, and under-parts, of a silky subdued whitish or drab- 

 white ; whiter on the belly and lower tail-coverts, and tinged with pur- 

 plish on the crown and nape : an occipital spot, the interscapularies, prox- 

 imate scapularies, shoulder of the wing, and rump, black with a rich 

 purple shine ; outer scapularies, and the second range of wing- coverts, 

 subdued white ; as also an elongated central terminal spot on some of 

 the greater wing-coverts, and more or less developed on the tips of the 

 tertiaries ; rest of the wing, and the tail, glossy green- black, with some 

 admixture of purple ; the secondaries shaped at tip and margined with 

 deep black, as in Sturnus vulgaris ; the outermost tail-feather having 

 a whitish-brown exterior web, and most of the upper tail-coverts are 

 of the same dull pale brown colour : bill dusky, whitish towards base of 

 lower mandible ; and the legs apparently plumbeous. What appear to 

 be the females have a large triangular drab-coloured spot at the base 

 of the secondaries, and the exterior half of the outer webs of the pri- 

 maries are of the same hue ; a trace of this appears also on the wings 

 of some (presumed) males. The young are brown above, paler be- 

 neath, passing to whitish on the belly and lower tail-coverts ; the back 

 and scapularies are darkest ; and there is a blackish occipital spot in 

 place of the shining black spot of the adult : the wings are marked 

 nearly as in the adult, but are much less bright ; the secondaries brown 



