166 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



should be shorter than " arvensis." Specimens /, g t h, and i 

 should be intermediate between " segetum " and " arvensis " ; 

 k and I should agree with "arvensis," but m is rather long even 

 for " arvensis" and as distant from the typical " arvensis " as the 

 same should be from "segetum" All the twelve specimens form 

 such a continuous series that it is impossible to make differences 

 of any importance with regard to this characteristic. 



If we now turn to point 2, it is true that specimen a with the 

 shortest bill has comparatively the largest nail, which is con- 

 tained only 3J times in the length of the culmen. But next 

 to this, one does not come to any short-billed (=" segetum") 

 specimen ; on the contrary, the two longest-billed ones, speci- 

 mens I and m, are most " segetum "-like in this respect, with a 

 nail contained 3^ times in the culmen. Then comes specimen & 

 with 3f , specimens d and i are alike with 3§ ; then specimens 

 / and k with 3f , e with 3f , and finally specimens c, g, and h with 

 4 times. In the greatest number of these specimens the propor- 

 tions of the nail compared with the length of the culmen are in- 

 termediate between those that should be characteristic for Mr. 

 Frohawk's "segetum"' and " arvensis" In none of these speci- 

 mens is the relation between nail and bill the same as it ought 

 to be in " arvensis," and the size of the nail evidently does not 

 stand in any such relation to the length of the bill as to enable 

 any grouping of the individuals round two centres, each repre- 

 senting a different race, still less a species. It has already 

 been remarked that the two longest-billed specimens exhibit 

 such characteristics in this respect as, according to Mr. Frohawk, 

 ought to belong to the short-billed form. 



With regard to the distribution of the orange on the bill, a 

 similar confusion makes itself apparent. The shortest-billed 

 specimen a has the whole upper mandible orange, except the nail 

 and a longitudinal bar on the culmen, which are black. Although 

 short-billed it agrees in this respect best with Mr. Frohawk's 

 " arvensis." Specimen d is again most " segetum"-\ike, as in this 

 the orange hardly extends under the anterior end of the nostrils. 

 Next to this comes the longest-billed specimen m, in which 

 the orange extends as a narrow band along the lower edge of the 

 upper mandible. In specimen c this band extends all the way 

 to the feathered portion. In specimens e and g this orange band 



