Birds of Celebes: Timeliidae. 
495 
* 199. ZOSTEROPS BABELO M.&Wg. 
Talaut WMte-eye. 
Plate XXX. 
Zosterops babelo (1) M. & Wg., Abh. Mas. Drescl. 1895, Nr. 9, p. 6. 
“Babelo” or “Bambelo”, native name, Karkellang, Nat. Coll. 
Adult. Above yellowish olive-green, brighter on the upper tail-coverts and forehead; wings 
and tail dusky, externally edged with the colour of the upper parts, lighter on 
primaries; chin and throat oclmaceous yellow, a small supraloral mark nearly as 
bright; a broad stri])e along the middle of the body, crissum, thighs, under 
tail-coverts and metacarpal edge srdphur-yellow, hardly tinged with ochre; sides 
of breast and of body hght smoke-grey; periocular ring white, a slight mark 
below it and on the lores blacldsh; under wing-coverts white washed with yellow; 
legs and feet (in a fresh skin) flesh-colour; bill blackish, pale at base of lower man- 
dible (Karkellang, autiunn, 1896 — C 15384; Nov. 1894, type — 0 13850). 
Measurements (2 examples). Wing CO, 61 mm; tail 43, 44; tarsus 17; exposed culmen 11, 
12, from nostril c. 8. 
Distribution. Talaut Islands — Karkellang (Nat. Coll.). 
Three specimens of this White-eye — two in the Dresden and one in the 
Tring Museums — are the only ones known at present. It is a rather large 
form of its kind, and has its nearest affinities in the following group with a 
broad yellow stripe along the body below and the head and back concolorous: 
Z.hasilanica Steere: Basilan, Samar, Leyte, Dinagat, Mindanao, Bongao; 
Z. everetti T w e e d d. : Cebu ; 
Z. grayi Wall.: Kei Islands; 
Z. aureiventris Hume: Tenasserim to Java, 
Z. mesoxantha Sal v ad.: Burmah; 
Z. salvadwii M. »&Wg. : Engano ; 
Z. albiventris Hchb.: Cape Grenville and the islands of Torres Straits ; 
Z. a-issalis Sharpe: New Guinea; 
Z. siquijorensis Bourns & VV^orces.: Siquijor, Negros. 
Of these the Talaut bird seems to be most like its nearest neighbour, Zosterops 
basilanica, which was rather insufficiently described by Prof. Steere, but the throat, 
being described as sulphur-yellow (as the abdomen), and the upper surface dark 
olive-green should serve to distinguish it from the Talaut form, in which the 
throat is ochraceous yellow, darker than the sulphur-yellow of the abdomen, etc. 
and the upper surface yellowish olive-green. 
FAMILY TIMELIIDAE. 
TEe Timeliidae, or Babblers, might almost be said to consist of any exotic 
birds, standing near, but which cannot exactly be referred to the Warblers, 
