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Show 424 THE MARQUIS OF TWEEDDALE ON BATRACHOSTOMUS. [May 15, the bird on which Gray founded his Otothrix hodgsoni was a female. If this be so, the conclusion that the females of this species are always rufous, and the males grey, is very much shaken ; ana it is most desirable that Mr. Hodgson's own words should be made known ; for the accuracy of zoological facts stated by Mr. Hodgson may be said to be more than « probable." Of the specimens of B. crinitus, ex Gilolo and Batchian, with sex determined, the females are in rufous plumage or rufous brown (B. psilopterus). Ine females of other Papuan forms of Podargus appear also to be rufous, such as JP. ocellatus. It may be added that the white markings on the nuchal, gular, and pectoral plumes and on the scapulars and wing-coverts (where they occur) are very similar in adult birds ol either sex, B. moniliger in part excepted. There is no evidence that the young, even nestlings, of both sexes wear plumage of the same colour. On the contrary, from the little that has been published on the subject, the young of the species known have grey or rufous predominating from the first. Of the two nestlings from Darjeeling identified by Blyth as belonging to B. affinis, one is described as being " mainly of a light chestnut hue, with nearly obsolete barred markings, and throwing out deeper chestnut or light-bay feathers on the crown and shoulder of the wing; while the other is profusely mottled throughout with black on a pale ground, but faintly tinged with chestnut" (J. A. S. B. 1849, p. 806). The nestling obtained along with the adult ot Otothrix hodgsoni (Mus. Brit.) is in pale rufous barred plumage. A nestling of the Travancore bird discovered by Mr. Bourdillon is described by Mr. H u m e as a "little rufous brown ball" (Str. F. iv. p. 380). „ , .. If it comes to be established that the adult females wear the rufous dress, and the adult males the more sombre grey and brown plumage, we shall have the fact that the females of the species belonging to the genus Batrachostomus are far more brightly coloured, and therefore more conspicuous than the males. The white ornamental plumes, the erect, frontal, half-developed, crest-like feathers, the true occipital crests, and the long hair-like auriculars are equally prominent in adults of both sexes, species by species, the white scapulars in the B.-auritus group excepted. But the fact will remain that the bright colouring belongs to the females. It is a coincidence, though perhaps nothing more, that all seven were first made known from rufous examples. The genus Batrachostomus was formed by Mr. Gould (Icones Av. ii. p. 13) for the reception of P. auritus, Vigors. Captain Hay three years later (J. A. S. B. 1841, p. 573) also proposed to make the same species the type of a genus which he called Bombycistomus. It is difficult to detect any external characters sufficiently definite to warrant the removal of B. auritus, or any of the other Asiatic Ba-trachostomi, from the older genus Podargus. Mr. G. R. Gray (P. Z. S. 1859, p. 101) created a separate genus under the title Otothrix, mainly relying on the long hairy auriculars, for the reception of the species obtained near Darjeeling by Mr. Hodgson. All |