HUME'S FLOWERPECKER. 
341 
wing-lining white;, mingled with olivaceous grey. There is a dull greenish- 
white stripe through the lores. The cheeks^ ear-coverts and sides of the 
neck dull green like the upper parts^ but somewhat greyer. The lower 
parts are white tinged with pale yellow. A narrow ill-defined stripe o£ 
olivaceous grey runs down either side of the throat from the base of the 
lower mandible. The whole of the breast is streaked and the whole of 
the sides and flanks suffused with this greyish olive ; but the centre of the 
abdomen^ the vent_, the tibial plumes and lower tail-coverts are pure very 
pale yellow, or perhaps it should be called yellowish white. 
^^The irides vary in different specimens from pale sienna-brown to pale 
yellowish red and orange. The legs, feet and claws are dark plumbeous ; 
the upper mandible varies from pale horny brown to horny black. The 
gape is always more or less orange, as is also the inside of the mouth ; the 
lower mandible varies ; in some it is fleshy white tipped brownish, in others 
light plumbeous or blue, while in one or two specimens, shot later in the 
spring, the lower mandible as well as the gape was orange.^' 
I quote Mr. Hume^s original description of this species, as 1 have not 
been able to examine a specimen. 
The following are the average dimensions of male birds as given by 
Mr. Hume : — Length 4*1 inches, tail 1*2, wing 2*4, tarsus '45, bill from 
gape '4 to '45. The females are rather smaller. 
Hume^s Flowerpecker was obtained by Mr. Davison in Tenasserim at 
Amherst, Mergui and Malewoon. Capt. Bingham found it also in the 
Thoungyeen valley. 
It extends down the Malay peninsula as far as Copah. 
This species is very close in coloration to Piprisoma agile, a bird which 
is also found in Tenasserim. Mr. Hume acknowledges that the only 
differences lie in the shape of the bill. He says : — P. agile is a pale grey 
brown with a faint greenish tinge, and P. modestus a pure green. Yet I 
have seen faded birds of the latter undistinguishable, so far as colour went, 
from freshly moulted ones of the former. But the bills differ altogether ; 
that of P. modestus is considerably longer, and yet the gonys of P. agile 
is a third longer than that of P. modestus.'^ 
The bills of both species are, however, so very small that I doubt very 
much whether these very minute differences in their shape are of any 
appreciable value. 
