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Show 520 MR. J. J. LISTER ON THE NATURAL [Dec. 4, 6. The ear-coverts are grey, not olive-brown. 7. The edge of the wing is nearly black, not pale. 8. The general colour above is a brighter olive. 9. The bill is longer and more slender. Z. atriceps, Gray, Z. fuscifrons, Salvad., Z. hypoleuca, Salvad., which, along with Z. mysoriensis, form a small group in the neighbourhood of N e w Guinea and the Moluccas, have the dark coloration on the crown of the head more strongly marked than the present species, a character which distinguishes them from the rest of the genus. Z. albigularis, Gould, from Norfolk Island, is very similar in colouring to our bird, and is, I believe, the only other species which has grey ear-coverts. The olive-brown on the head, and the cinnamon flanks are, however, much more strongly marked than in the Christmas-Island form. COLLOCALIA NATALIS, sp. n. C. neglectEe (Gray) similis, sed plumis uropygii limbo albido sub-latiore ; gula obscurius fuliginosa ; areolis albidis subcaudalium minoribus. This small Swift was frequently seen hawking along the line of shore-bushes at dusk, or among the tops of the high trees on the summit of the island. No nests of it were seen. It belongs to the same group as that which builds the edible nests in Java and elsewhere. This bird is only separable from C. neglecta, Gray1, from Timor, by the following rather small differences :- 1. There is less white mingled with the dark metallic green on the lower tail-coverts. 2. The white spots at bases of tbe outer rectrices are less sharply defined. 3. The fuliginous colour of the throat is darker. 4. There is rather broader white edging to the rump-feathers. In the first and third characters it is nearer C esculenta (Linn.), but in the duller and browner metallic green of the upper surface it exactly resembles C. neglecta, and is quite distinct from that more brightly coloured species. CARPOPHAGA WHARTONI, Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1887, p. 515, pl.xliii. Mr. Sharpe's description of this bird was drawn up from a specimen which had been sent home in spirits of wine and which had lost much of the fine metallic gloss which is present in skins which have not been so treated. The back and wing-coverts are rich dark bronze and bronzy green, slate when the back is viewed from behind, and held away from the light, and the whole upper aspect of the tail is dark glossy bronze-green, its under aspect being dark brown, with the lateral rectrices pale brown. There are 14 rectrices, as usual in this genus; the crown is slate, varied with iridescent lights, behind shading into 1 G. K. Gray, "On the Genus Collocalia," Ann. Nat. Hist. xvii. 3rd |