CREEPER. 229 



17.— COMYNS'S CREEPER. 



LENGTH, from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, four 

 inches. Bill black ; head, neck, back, and wing coverts fine 

 polished variable green ; rump and upper tail coverts the same, with 

 a polished gloss ; breast, belly, and vent fine deep yellow ; quills 

 and tail dusky ; the two middle feathers of the last elongated, at 

 least two inches beyond the others; legs dusky black. 



Inhabits Sierra Leona. In the collection of Mr. Comyns. — We 

 are well aware of the great difference of plumage in the Varieties, 

 supposed to be of the Ceylonese Species ; but none of those 

 we have yet seen exactly answer to this, nor have any of them 

 the elongated tail feathers. It seems, however, to be a bird hanging 

 between the Ceylonese and Yellow-bellied Species. 



18— YELLOW-BELLIED CREEPER. 



Certhia lepida, Ind. Om. i. 298. Mus. Carls, ii. t. 35. 

 Grimpereau de Malacca, Ois. dor. ii. 209. pi. 116. 1. 

 Soui-manga de Malacca, Ois. dor. ii. 62. 

 Yellow-bellied Creeper, Gen. Syn. Sup. 131. Shaw's Zool. viii. 213. 



LENGTH between four and five inches. Bill black ; irides red ; 

 forehead deep changeable green; behind the eye a dirty greenish 

 band, passing half way down the sides of the neck, where it is 

 rounded at the end ; parallel to, and beneath this, a second of glossy 

 violet, which arises at the gape, and continues to the wing; throat 

 red brown ; lesser wing coverts violet, with a metalline gloss ; the 

 others the same, inclining to red ; quills dirty brown ; back, rump, 



