OCR Text |
Show 330 MR. R. B. SHARPE ON THE BIRDS OF LABUAN. [Apr. 1, bird, Mr. Low sent an old female caught on the nest with two eggs the latter are large and white, axis 1*5, diam. 125. The native name is " Bukaka," according to Mr. Treacher. Governor Ussher's note is as follows : - " Decidedly not common. I observed one at Tanjong Kubong, but could not get near it. One was given to me by Mr. Low, the others being shot by Buak." 35. CEYX DILLWYNNI. Ceyx dillwynni, Sharpe, Monogr. Alced. pi. 43, ; Salvad. t. c. p. 99. C. tridactyla (nee Linn.), Motl. & Dillw. t. c. p. 13. C. innominata, Salvad. t. c. p. 97. C. sharpii, Salvad. t. c. p. 98. Native name " Mantis merah " (Treacher). This species was described by me from Labuan in the year 1868. It has since been plentifully forwarded from that island, and from other parts of Borneo, and from Sarawak. Count Salvadori described a second species in 1869, which he called Ceyx sharpii; and again in the same paper he described the red Three-toed Kingfisher (C. rufldorsa, Strickl.) as C. innominata. This latter name was not adopted by me in m y ' Monograph,' as an examination of the type showed that it was the true Ceyx rufldorsa of Strickland. Since the time when Mr. Low sent his first collections, the British Museum has carefully secured all the specimens which have been offered to it of these little rufous Ceyces, whose plumages are so difficult to understand : there is therefore a very fine series of C. dillwynni now in the national collection. Added to the large number of skins in different plumages now sent by Mr. Treacher, I can affirm that the supposition propounded by me in 1875, that Ceyx sharpii is only a stage of plumage of C. dillwynni, is now placed beyond all doubt as a fact. Dr. Briiggemann, in his paper on Dr. Fiscber's collections from Central Borneo (Abhandl. Nat. Ver. Bremen, v. p. 532), has also given his attention to the species, with a similar result. At the same time the plumages of the species are not easy to follow when the specimens are unsexed, as is unfortunately the case with the entire series in the Museum and in Mr. Treacher's collection. Dr. Fischer believes that there is no difference in the sexes, when the birds are adult, beyond a little greater brilliancy of colouring on the part of the male. There is no difficulty in believing this to be true, as far as I can see ; and all the specimens with varying degrees of blue on the wing-coverts would be individuals in various stages of immaturity, while the red birds (C. rufldorsa), as far as Borneo is concerned, would be still more immature. I fancy that this determination of the progress to maturity is true of the female only ; for I think it probable that the latter sex takes longer to effect her progress to the adult plumage than does the male; this is the case in other birds. That the males take less time to gain the full plumage is shown by four specimens in the Museum which have blackish bills (showing that they are young), and which yet have the colours of an adult male, excepting |