ILLUSTRATIONS OF ORNITHOLOGY. 
HOLOCNEMIS NLEVIUS, Gmelin. 
Syn. — Wall-creeper of Surinam, Edw. Birds, pi. 340. Sitta nsevia, G-m. Syst. 
Nat. p. 442. Lath. Ind. Orn., p. 203. Lath. Syn. vol. ii. p. 634. 
Shaw, Zool. vol. viii. p. 114. Holocnemis flammatus, Strickland, in Ann. 
and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. xiii. p. 415, pi. 13 ('female.) 
I described and figured the $> of this curious bird in 1844, in the 
Annals of Natural History, supposing it to be a new species, and 
adopted it as the type of my genus Holocnemis , distinguished from 
most other of the Formicariince, by the absence, or very slight 
indication of scuta on the tarsi. I subsequently suspected it to he 
identical with the “ Wall-creeper of Surinam ” of Edwards (Sitta 
ncevia , auct.) ; but as Edwards describes his bird as of a “ dark 
bluish lead colour,” I was unable to identify it with certainty. I 
recently, however, met with a pair of birds in the collection of T. B. 
L. Baker, Esq. of Hardwicke Court, Gloucester, which clearly prove, 
that Edwards’ bird is the 6, and my 44 Holocnemis flammata ” the?. 
In my description of the latter bird I stated, that the habitat was 
unknown, but doubtless (reasoning from its organic structure, as we 
may often safely do) American. This conjecture is now confirmed; 
Edwards’ bird having been procured in Surinam, and Mr. Baker s 
specimens in the adjacent, and comparatively little known island of 
Trinidad. 
£. — Dark slaty grey above, paler on the rump; wings nearly 
black, all the upper wing-covers with a sub-triangular terminal 
white spot on each feather ; tail nearly black, rectrices obtusely 
pointed, the two external pair narrowly tipped with white ; lower 
parts slaty grey, paler than the back ; ear-covers with white shafts; 
throat white, mottled with slate grey ; breast and middle of belly 
with a pointed white streak on each feather, bordered by slate grey, 
and the latter slightly margined with white ; lower tail-covers with 
a white streak down the shafts, and a narrow white margin ; beak 
horn-colour ; feet and claws pale yellowish. 
? Olive brown where the $ is slaty grey ; otherwise similarly 
marked ; lower mandible paler than the upper. 
Total length, 6 ; beak to front, 8 ; to gape, i ; wing, 2.7 \ medial 
rectrices, 2 ; external, i.8 ; tarsus, 9; middle toe and claw, 9; hind 
ditto, 7. — II. E. Strickland. 
~ 34-0 
