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Show 1879.] SIGNOR T. SALVADORI ON ACOMUS INORNATUS. 651 6. On Acomus inornatus, Salvad. By T. SALVADORI, C.M.Z.S. [Received June 10, 1879.] (Plate XLVIII.) Quite recently I have described (Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. xiv. p. 250) a new Pheasant from Mount Singalan, on the west coast of Sumatra, which I have named Acomus inornatus. The type specimen, which has long spurs, looks fully adult; and Dr. Beccari, who obtained it, is very positive in stating that it is a male, having dissected it himself. H e tells me that, from reports he heard from the natives, and from the feathers found near the traps and belonging to specimens which unfortunately had been eaten by some carnivorous animal, he thinks that the female is of a reddish brown colour. But it is possible that the feathers alluded to, instead of belonging to the female of A. inornatus, were those of the hen of Euplocamus vieilloti, Gray, which most likely is the bird with the white tail-feathers mentioned by Beccari in his letter to Marquis Doria (Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. xiii. p. 454) dated Kaju Tanam (Sumatra). As the new bird described by m e is wholly black, some one may think, notwithstanding the positive statement of Beccari, that it is not a male of a distinct species, but a female of Acomus erythrophthal-mus (Raffles). Such is certainly not the case, according to m y ideas ; and I think it advisable to point out the differences between m y bird and the hen of A. erythrophthalmus. I feel the more the necessity of doing so specially, as in describing A. inornatus I have neglected to notice the differences between the two birds; and some one may think that I was not aware of the female of A. erythrophthalmus being black and wearing such a dress as may be easily taken for that of a cock-especially as its tarsi are armed with powerful spurs. The female of A. erythrophthalmus has so much the appearance of a male bird that it has been described as a distinct species under the name of Phasianus purpureus, Gray (111. Ind. Zool. pi. 42). I think that Blyth was the first (Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 245) to point out that the bird called Ph.purpureus is the female of A. erythrophthalmus. Subsequently Sclater (P. Z. S. 1863, p. 120) and Elliot, in his Monograph of the Pheasants, agreed in considering Ph. purpureus to be the female of A. erythrophthalmus. It must be said, however, in justice to Raffles that he rightly described (Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 321) the black bird as the female of his Phasianus erythrophthalmus. Turning to m y Acomus inornatus, I may state that before describing it I had carefully compared it with an adult hen of A. erythrophthalmus, and felt quite convinced, as I am now, that it is a male of a distinct species. The hen of A. erythrophthalmus is smaller, and it is black all over, uniformly shining greenish blue on the upper parts; the head |