196 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



which color is inclosed, except in front, by the stripe from the nostril. 

 At the base of the bill, slightly below the base of the lower mandible 

 and behind the eye, a stripe of the same blue extends to the occiput, 

 all the feathers of which (stripe) are black at their bases, readily 

 showing that color when disarranged. Back blue, tinged with green ; 

 rump blue (cobalt); wings and tail ultramarine. 



Entire under parts of the body, inferior coverts of the wings, and a 

 narrow collar on the neck behind, fine sienna-yellow, palest and nearly 

 white on the throat, and deepest on the abdomen and nuchal collar. 

 Tibiae reddish-yellow, with a few brownish feathers ; bill dark, with 

 a large light-colored spot at the base of the lower mandible. " Legs 

 dusky flesh-color ; irides brown" (Peale). 



Hab. — Feejee Islands. Specimen in Nat. Mus. Washington. 



One of the most handsome birds of this group, and which we have 

 not been able to refer to any description with which we are acquainted. 

 It resembles in a considerable measure, the preceding [T. tida), but is 

 smaller, and the under parts at all ages are handsome reddish-yellow, 

 somewhat similar in shade to that color in 2'. vagans, but paler and 

 more delicate. It is evidently a distinct species, and is apparently 

 peculiar to the Feejee Islands. 



Several specimens of this bird are in the collection of the Expedi- 

 tion. 



According to Mr. Peale : " This pretty species is distributed over 

 a greater part of the Feejee Group of islands. It is solitary in its 

 habits, frequents the mangroves which skirt the inner verge of the coral 

 belts, and is most commonly found near the salt water, where fish and 

 crabs abounding, would lead us to suppose that such were its food, but 

 we never saw it capture anything but insects ; fragments of grasshop- 

 pers were the ordinary contents of the stomachs of those we dissected. 

 We were not so fortunate as to find the nest or eggs of this species, 

 but killed numbers of the birds, as they were quite common. The 

 females scarcely differ from the males when in full plumage, but are 

 not quite so richly colored." 



The fact that the birds of this genus are at least partially insect- 

 eaters, and in some species perhaps mainly dependent on that descrip- 

 tion of food, is well established by the observations of the naturalists 

 of the Expedition. T. vagaus, however, according to Dr. Pickering, 



