Genus —S U G 0 M E L . 
Sugomel Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., VoL 5, 
pt. i., p. 7, July 17th, 1922. Type (by 
original designation) . Myzomela nigra ashbyi Mathews. 
This form, confused under Myzomela through the bane of genus-lumping, 
appears to have no close relationship with that group. 
The birds are small Myzomeline-looking birds of black and white coloration, 
with a long, slender, curved bill, long wing, medium square tail and slender legs 
and feet. 
The bill is longer, more curved and more slender than in Myzomela, longer 
than the head, the nasal groove and nostrils very long but still less than one- 
third the length of the bill on account of the anterior lengthening. The wing 
is entirely different; the first primary is very minute, so reduced as to be entirely 
hidden by the coverts and apparently missing ; the second primary, super¬ 
ficially the first, is very long, almost the same length as the third and fourth, 
which are subequal and longest, and longer than the fifth ; the third, fourth 
and fifth primaries are scalloped on the outer edges towards the tips, ilie 
tail is longer than in the preceding genera and square. 
The feet are slender, but the tarsus is much shorter than the bill, the anterior 
face scutellate, the hinder bilaminate ; the toes short and delicate, the outer 
and inner subequal, the latter is little shorter and with its claw about equal 
to the middle toe alone ; the hind-toe and claw are stouter and a little longer 
than the middle toe and claw ; claws slender. 
I do not at present know where this genus should be located in the Sun- 
Bird Honey-eater series. 
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