Birds of Celebes: Zosteropidae. 
485 
* 192. ZOSTEROPS SQUAMICEPS (Hart.). 
Aberrant White-eye. 
Plate XXIX. 
a. Chlorocharis squamiceps (1) Hartert, Nov. Zool. 1896, HI, 70; (2) id., t. c, 153. 
Zosterops squamiceps (1) Hart., Nov. Zool. 1897, 157, 
Adult. Above olivaceous green, brighter on rumj) and wing -edgings; feathers of bead 
above blackish with wliitish shaft-streaks and terminal edges of silvery grey, forehead 
shghtly olivaceous; lores olive whitish; a small simce below and behind the eye bare, 
around the eye a tliin ring of minute white plumulae; ear-coverts silvery grey 
with a yellowish gloss; chin and throat greyish white, with blackish sub terminal 
edges to the feathers; remaining under parts yellowish olive-green, greyer on sides 
of breast, clearing to suhihiu'-yellow on middle of lower breast, on abdomen and 
under tail-coverts; under wing-coverts whitish; “bill black, feet brown” (Hartert i); 
wing 66 mm; tail 49; tansus 20; middle toe and claw 17; bill from nostril 9.5 (cf, 
Pasoso, Bonthain Peak, 6000 feet, Oct. 1895: Everett — C 14890). 
Female or immature. Head above more olive-brown, the silvery grey terminal edgings 
not extending beyond the crown, all the feathers of head above with blackish sub- 
terminal edgings; breast browner, yellow of under parts less extensive (Q, label as 
in cT, 0 14891). Possibly this example is immature, as Mr. Hartert (1) says there 
seem to be no sexual differences. 
Distribution. South Celebes — Mount Bonthain (Everett a 1, a 2, Doherty 1). 
One of the be.st of the discoveries of Mr. Everett in South Celebes is the 
present species, which came into the careful hands of Mr. E. Hartert, who 
detected its true relationships. At first sight its affinities are not apparent; this 
is due to the peculiar squamous appearance of the feathering of the head. But, 
put a similar squamous head on Zosterops javanica (Horsf.), and you have Z. 
squamiceps (Hartert)! A form perhaps still more nearly allied is Zosterops 
squamifrons Sharpe, described from Mt. Dulit, Borneo, which, as its name 
betokens, has a squamous appearance on the forehead. In some ways Zosterops 
squamiceps recalls certain of the Honey -eaters, for instance, Glycyphila, but it 
would be dangerous to speak of it as a possible connecting-link between the 
Zosteropidae and Meliphayidae, as its wing is that of a true Zosterops, and therefore 
quite unlike that of GlycypMla. Indeed, we cannot find any point of structural 
difference capable of description by which Z. squamiceps may be separated from 
other species of Zosterops-, it also has the white periocular ring, though this is 
inconspicuous. 
A form of Zosterops, more aberrant in our opinion than Z. squamiceps, is 
the bird named by Dr. Sharpe Chlorocharis emiliae. In describing it Sharpe 
(Ibis 1886, 392, pi. XI) overlooked its true affinities and made it anew genus 
of the Timeliidae, standing near Cyanoderma and Mixornis ; with these however, 
as Hartert remarks, it has “no resemblance in the wing-formula, no resemblance 
in the structure of the plumage, nor any in coloration, form of tail, etc. In 
fact the structure almost entirely agrees with that of the genus Zosterops". The 
