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Show 1879.] MR. W . A. FORBES O N THE GENUS MYZOMELA. 259 1. MYZOMELA SANGUINOLENTA. 1 Scarlet Creeper, Lath. Gen. Syn. i. pt. 2, p. 740 (1782). ? Certhia rubra, Gmel. S. N. i. p. 479 (1788). Sanguineous Creeper, Lath. Gen. Syn. Suppl. ii. p. 167, t. 130 (1801). Certhia sanguinolenta, Lath. Ind. Orn. Suppl. p. xxxvii (1801). Cochineal Creeper, Lath. Gen. Syn. Suppl. ii. p. 167 (1801). Certhia dibapha, Lath. Ind. Orn. Suppl. p. xxxvii (1801). Red-rumped Creeper, Lath. Gen. Syn. Suppl. ii. p. 169 (1801). Certhia erythropygia, Lath. Ind. Orn. Suppl. p. xxxviii (1801). Certhia australasiee, Leach, Zool. Misc. i. p. 30, t. 11 (1814). Myzomela cardinalis, V. & H. (nee Gm.), Linn. Trans, xv. p. 316 (1826). Myzomela sanguinolenta, Gld. B. A. iv. pi. 63 ; id. Handb. B. A. i. p. 555. <S ad. capite, dorso cum uropygio, pectore et lateribus abdominis coccineis; macula anteoculari, alis caudaque nigris; alarum tectricibus conspicue albido, remigibus olivaceo-griseo limbatis; abdomine sordide flavido ; subcaudalibus griseo alboque variis ; rostro nigro, pedibus cornels. Long. al. 2*4, caud. 1*6, rostr. 0*45, tars. 0*5 (poll. Any I.). 2 sordide griseo-brunnea, subtus dilutior; dorso et uropygio rufescenti tinctis; alis caudaque fuscis, remigibus olivaceo, tectricibus alarum pallide brunneo marginatis. Hab. in Australia. The phases of plumage in this species, the type of the genus (for M. cardinalis, apud Vig. & Horsf. I. s. c, is this bird), seem to have caused some confusion amongst the older authors. It seems to me that in all probability Latham's " Scarlet Creeper," on which Gmelin founded Certhia rubra in his edition of the ' Systema Naturae,' really applies to this species, the description " lower part of belly and vent white," together with the size (" of a "Wren ") and the locality (" from some part of the South Seas ") quite coinciding with this bird, and not at all with M. cardinalis, of which, in his Ind. Orn. (i. p. 290, 1790), Latham treated it as being the female. Besides this, Latham bestowed at least three other Latin names (each with its equivalent vernacular) on this little bird. Myzomela sanguinolenta is perhaps most nearly allied to M. chloro-ptera, which differs, however, as below pointed out. Only the males possess the beautiful red plumage; and in these, if not quite adult, the variegation of each breast-feather, which is grey at the base, then paler, and red only at the tip, produces the somewhat mottled appearance of the red underparts. According to Mr. Gould, the irides are " dark brown." Myzomela sanguinolenta is the commonest species of Myzomela in Australia, and is familiarly known to the colonists as the "Little Soldier." Mr. Bamsay, in his list of Australian Birds (Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W . ii. 1877), records it from Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, the Wide-Bay District, the Richmond- and Clarence- 17* |