M YZOMELA ANNABELLCE, Sclate?\ 
Mrs. Forbes’s Honey-sucker. 
Myzomela annabellce, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1883, p. 56. 
This little Myzomela belongs to a small section of the genus which contains M. bom from Bancla and 
M. adolphiruB from the Arfak Mountains in North-western New Guinea. The former, however, differs in 
having the whole of the back scarlet, while according to Count Salvador’s description of the Arfak species, 
which we have never seen, the hack is dusky greyish with a slight olive tint and the rump and upper 
tail-coverts scarlet, whereas in M. annabellce the mantle is blue-black and the lower hack is scarlet as well as 
the rump and upper tail-coverts. 
The single specimen yet known was procured by Mr. Forbes in Loetoe while it was frequenting the 
cocoa-nut trees from which the natives had been collecting their " Tuak,” or palm-wine. 
This pretty little species has been named by Mr. Sclater after Mrs. Forbes ; and we have great pleasure in 
figuring a bird hearing the name of this brave lady, who shared the perils of Mr. Forbes’s travels in the 
Moluccas and even accompanied him to Timor Laut, where, in addition to the risks from the climate, their 
collecting had to he done in a circumscribed area, with the constant dread of an attack from the neighbouring 
villages. 
Adult male. General colour above blue-black, the centre of the back, rump, and upper tail-coverts bright 
scarlet ; wing-coverts blue-black, greater coverts and quills black, with a narrow margin of yellowish olive ; tail- 
feathers blue-black, narrowly fringed with white along the edge of the inner web ; crown of head and hind neck 
scarlet ; lores black ; sides of face, ear-coverts, cheeks, and throat bright scarlet, succeeded by a black patch 
across the fore neck ; remainder of under surface of the body pale yellowish olive, the flanks mixed with 
ashy, the bases being of this colour ; thighs pale yellowish olive ; under tail-coverts white, washed with pale 
yellowish olive and having faint dusky centres ; under wing-coverts and axillaries white, washed with yellow 
on the edge of the wing ; quills blackish, white along the edge of the inner web ; “ bill black ; legs and feet 
dirty green; iris dark brown ” ( H . 0, Forbes). Total length 365 inches, eulmen 055, wing 2‘0, tail P3, 
tarsus O’ 6. 
The figures in the Plate represent the typical specimen, of the natural size, in three positions. 
[R. B. S.] 
