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Show 614 THE MARQUIS OF TWEEDDALE ON [May 21, representative form1. That three birds, one inhabiting Java, another Borneo, the Malay peninsula, and Sumatra, and the third Palawan, all so closely resembling each other in their colouring and markings that they are difficult to recognize without careful comparison of their shades and tints, should possess nostrils structurally differing in all three is remarkable; but is it a sufficient reason to place them in three different genera? I can only regard the character as being specific. The plumage of the sexes is alike. The amount of dark chestnut on the middle pairs of rectrices varies considerably, from three inches to one inch in depth. 9. CENTROCOCCYX EURYCERCUS. Centropus eurycercus, A. Hay, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1845, p. 551. [P. Princesa, 3, January 8, 1878: iris bright crimson; bill, legs, and feet black. 3 (juv.), December 9, 1877: iris neutral tint; bill and legs jet-black.] Rather smaller than the Malaccan type. 10. LANIUS LUZIONENSIS (72). [P. Princesa, 3 £, December 6 and 11, 1877.] 11. GRAUCALUS SUMATRENSIS, Ceblepyris sumatrensis, S. Miiller, Verh. Land- en Volkenk. p. 191. [P. Princesa, $, December 1877 : iris light lemon-yellow.] Does not differ from Sumatran, Malaccan, and Bornean examples. 12. DICRURUS PALAWANENSIS. In the" Philippines three species of Dicruridae are known:- D. balicassius, type of the genus Dicrurus; D. mirabilis, its representative form ; and D. striatus. This last, by its even, almost unfurcated tail, resembles D. balicassius in structure, but in its general colouring and in the distribution of its markings exhibits a close relationship to the Papuan and Malaccan species associated by Mr. Sharpe with Chibia hottentotta. These Papuan species seemed to me to belong to a group distinct from that represented by D. balicassius on the one hand and Chibia hottentotta on the other; and their geographical range favoured this view3. But Mr. Everett has discovered in Palawan a species which undoubtedly belongs to the Papuan section of the Dicruridse ; and it would appear that, with D. striatus as a connecting link, the Papuan and the Philippine species must be regarded as members of one section of the family, to which the title of Dicrurus should be applied. Besides this undescribed species, Palawan is inhabited by at least one other member of the family, belonging to the genus Buchanga ; and Palawan and Lombock are the only two islands or areas known to me where there is a second species associated with a true species of Dicrurus, uulesSj 1 The type was from Balabac; but the Palawan bird does not appear to differ, 2 Count T. Salvadori has recently (antea, p. 88, note) proposed the generio title of Dicruropsis for this group. |
