168 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



have repeatedly occurred in the course of our examination of the pre- 

 sent collection, in which we have been under the necessity of deciding 

 on the claims of a real or supposed species very nearly allied to another, 

 without a sufficient number of specimens to warrant that our decision 

 shall be either reliable or satisfactory even to ourselves. This bird 

 is nearly related to the well-known Zosterops dorsalis, of Australia, and 

 is about the same size. It has the same cinereous back, and a very 

 similar general distribution of colors, but the yellow of the throat is 

 more strongly marked and occupies a larger space ; the head above is 

 of a lighter shade of yellowish-green, and in the only specimen of the 

 present bird in the collection, there is but a faint tinge of the light- 

 brown on the flanks so strongly marking Z. dorsalis. We regard these, 

 however, as but slender grounds for the establishment of a species, 

 especially in this, as it appears to us, intricate and difficult genus. 



The specimen before us, according to Mr. Peale, " was killed in a 

 grove of Casnarina trees, at Venua Levu, one of the Feejee Islands, 

 on the fifteenth of June." 



3. Tribe TEI^ITIROSTRES. 



1. Genus MOHO, Lesson, Traite d'Orn. I, p. 302 (1831). 



1. MOHO ANGUSTIPLUMA (Peale). 

 Eniomiza angustipluma, Peale, Zool. U. S. Exp. Exp. Birds, p. 147 (1848). 



Atlas, Ornithology, Plate XI, fig. 1. Adult? 



Supra fusca lineis JongitudinaUbus aJhis, gutture flavescenii-aXbo, pectore 

 et ahdomine albis, fusco lineatis, crissis rufis, alls et cauda fiiscis, linea 

 suhocidari nigra. Long. tot. 13 i pollices. 



Form. — Rather slender; bill curved ; wings rather long, with the fourth 

 and fifth primaries longest and nearly equal; tail long, wedge-shaped, 

 the two central feathers exceeding the others ; legs and feet strong; 

 plumage of the head, neck, and breast, with the webs of the feathers 

 composed of few filaments, and presenting an open or skeleton-like 

 texture ; many feathers of the throat terminated with bristles. 



