STIGMATOPS CHLORIS, sewad

Mysol Honey-eater.

Stigmatops argentauris, pt., Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. xii. p. 336 (1878).

Stigmatops chloris, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. xii. p. 337 (1878).—Id. op. cit. xvi. p. 76 (1880).—Id. Orn.
Papuasia e delle Molucche, ii. p. 325 (1881).—Sharpe, Rep. Voy. H.M.S. * Alert,’ Birds, p. 19 (1884).
Glycyphila ocularis, pt., Gadow, Cat. Birds in Brit. Mus. ix. p. 213 (1884)

 

CounT Satvaporr separated the Honey-eater from Mysol from S#gmatops ocularis of Australia on account
of its greener coloration and whitish auricular spot. Dr. Gadow, in treating of the last-named species, unites
not only Stigmatops chloris but also S. subocularis to §. ocularis, stating that intermediate forms frequently
occur. We have already had occasion to controvert this reasoning on Dr. Gadow’s part, and we do not
hesitate to restore to these species of S¢igmatops the distinct position accorded to them by Count Salvadori,
whose work Dr. Gadow has somewhat unreasonably upset.

S. chloris is yellowish both above and below, instead of greyish as S. ocularis, and the ear-spot is whitish.
Two specimens are in the British Museum from Mysol; and we are indebted to the kindness of our friend
Dr. Jentink for the loan of a specimen from the Leyden Museum, collected in Mysol by Hoedt in June 1867,
and one of the types described by Salvadori. The following is a description of this specimen :—

Adult male. General colour above dull greyish olive, more distinctly greyish on the neck and scapulars,
lighter and tinged with olive-yellow on the rump and upper tail-coverts ; wing-coverts like the back, the
greater series dusky brown, edged with the same colour as the back, the median and greater coverts
indistinctly tipped with ashy olive; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills dusky brown, margined
externally with olive-yellow, brighter on the quills; teil-feathers ashy olive, with olive-yellow margins and
blackish shafts ; crown of head like the back ; lores and sides of head above the ear-coverts somewhat more
dusky; cheeks pale ashy ; below the eye a patch of silvery white dots, followed by a spot of silvery white on
the ear-coverts ; under surface of body pale ashy washed with light olive-yellow, the centre of the abdomen
rather brighter olive-yellow; the feathers of the fore neck and breast with obsolete margius of pale olive-
yellow, with a few mesial streaks of the same colour ; under tail-coverts pale ashy, margined with light olive-
yellow ; axillaries and under wing-coverts also pale ashy with light olive-yellow margins ; quills dusky below,
ashy whitish along the edge of the inner web. Total length 5 inches, culmen 0°7, wing 2°75, tail 2:1,
tarsus 0°75.

The Plate represents an adult bird in two positions, the figures being drawn from the typical specimen

lent to us by Dr. Jentink.

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