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Show 1866.] VISCOUNT WALDEN ON BIRDS FROM TENASSERIM. 555 4. PAL^ORNIS NICOBARICUS, Gould, Birds of Asia. Palarornis erythrogenis, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1846, p. 23, nee Fraser, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 245. Nos. 4, 5, 6. Andamans. These three specimens appear to belong to this species. The type came from the Nicobars, to which islands, according to Mr. Blyth, in 1846 it was supposed to be restricted. Not having been able to compare Captain Beavan's specimens with Nicobar individuals, I am unable to assert their identity positively. 5. ARTAMUS LEUCOPYGIALIS, Gould?, P. Z. S. 1842, p. 17. Nos. 7,d, 10, 2 • Andamans. The male specimen is that of a mature bird. The one marked a female is in the usual dingy brownish speckled plumage of adolescence ; it may, however, be a young female. At least four species of Swallow Shrikes, with white rumps and under surface, have up to now been regarded as distinct:-1st, Lanius leucorhynchus, Gm., from the Philippines; 2nd, Lanius leucogaster, Valenc, ex Manilla and Timor ; 3rd, Ocypterus papuensis, Temm., ex N e w Guinea and Timor (apud Bp.) ; 4th, Artamus leucopygialis, Gould, ex Australia. Prince Bonaparte has distinguished the three first from each other solely by their comparative dimensions. Lanius leucorhynchus, Gm., was founded on Lanius manillensis, Briss. (Orn. ii. p. 130), and is equal to Lanius dominicanus, Gm., founded on Sonnerat's Pie-griesche Dominiquaine des Philippines (Voy. Nouv. Guin. p. 55, pi. 25, and also figured by Buffon, PL Enl. pi. 9. f. 1). This species Valenciennes (Mem. du Mus. 1820, vi. p. 27) partly includes under his Ocypterus leucogaster, the characters of which he appears to have drawn, not from Manilla, but from Timor specimens at the time preserved in the Paris Museum. He tells us that, as all the species of the genus have the bill blue, and not white, he preferred altering Gmelin's designation to that of leucogaster. I have failed in seeing a Manilla specimen ; but Brisson gives the colour of the bill as gris-blanc, and Sonnerat states it to be grisdtre. Both these authors described the darker portions of the plumage as very dark; the first uses the expression noirdtre, while Sonnerat says that they are black; and they are represented as black in both Buffon's and Sonnerat's plates. Valenciennes described his specimens as having the head, throat, wings, and the tail above ardoisees. H e adds that there is no more reason for adopting the title of leucorhynchus than there is for adopting that of dominicanus. Thus it would appear that the Manilla species is altogether a darker bird than that of Timor, and that Valenciennes had not seen it. Specimens obtained by Mr. Wallace, one in Mysol and the other in Lombok, agree in every respect with the description of A. papuensis, Temm. (Consp. G. Av. i. p. 342), and the habitat of which is there given as Timor and New Guinea. But may not these really represent the true leucogaster, Val. ? |