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Show 1877.] THE ORNITHOLOGY OF THE PHILIPPINES. 687 pelago1 I enumerated 218 species. This number must be diminished by one, Circus ceruginosus, Mr. H. Cuming's Philippine specimen, catalogued under that title by Mr. Sharpe (Cat. Accipitres B. Mus. p. 71), m y only authority, being now considered by Mr. Sharpe to be C. spilonotus, jr. (see Ibis, 1876, p. 31). Further, I have reason to doubt the Philippine habitat of so-called Crateropus caudatus (no. 97). To the net total of 216 species Mr. Sharpe has been able to add some 66 species, for the most part obtained by Dr. Steere2. This total is partly arrived at by including 23 species from the island of Palawan, 4 from that of Balabac, and 4 from the Sooloo Islands. In a footnote (t. c. p. 126) I excluded the Sooloo archipelago from the Philippine area; and as we have only the evidence of four known Sooloo species of birds to guide us, I am disinclined as yet to concur in Mr. Sharpe's opinion that these islands ought to be included. Nor am I quite certain that Palawan and still more Balabac should not be excluded. That Palawan certainly is a border region, intervening between Borneo and the Philippine Islands, is made evident by Dr. Steere's remarkable discoveries; but the Malayan character of its ornis overpowers the Philippine element; and until its fauna and that of the Sooloo Islands shall have been more completely investigated, I purpose to exclude them from what I consider to be the strictly Philippine area. Deducting, therefore, the 23 Palawan, the 4 Balabac, and the 4 Sooloo species (not known in the Philippine archipelago as restricted by me) from Mr. Sharpe's list (t. c. p. 350), in all we have a total of 35 purely Philippine birds added by Dr. Steere to m y amended number of 216, making 251 in all. The naturalists of the ' Challenger' Expedition added 11 more (see my paper above, p. 537), making an amended total of 262 Philippine species; and to this number Mr. Everett has enabled me to add 6 from Luzon, namely three new species, Megulurus ruficeps, Oxycerca everetti, Dicceum xanthopygium, two not hitherto recorded, Motacilla ocularis, Anthus maculatus, and one previously supposed to be a Malayan species, Turnix fasciatus. So 268 species of birds may at this date be considered the total number known to occur in the Philippine Islands, exclusive of Palawan, Balabac, and the Sooloos. 1 Trans. Zool. Soc. 1875, ix. pp. 125-252. 2 Sharpe, Trans. Linn. Soc. ser. 2, Zool. i. p. 307. This number is less by two than Mr. Sharpe's estimate (t. c. p. 308), in consequence of m y not being able to recognize Chysocalaptes maculice.ps, Sharpe, as being distinct from C. lucidus (Scop.), and Hirundo rustica of the Islands as differing from H. gutturalis. Brachyurus propinquus, Sharpe, ex Mindanao, does not appear to be distinct from Erythropitta erythrogastra, ex Luzon, though the Balabac type may be different. Perhaps the Zebu Cyornis, C. banyumas of m y list (no. 84), m ay have to be added as constituting a distinct species; for it appears to differ specifically from C. philippensis, Sharpe, ex Luzon and Panay. |