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Show 434 MR. R. B. SHARPE ON BIRDS FROM PERAK. [May 3, GLAUCIDIUM BRODIEI (Burt.) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. ii. p. 212 (1875). " No. 57. cf? • Irides yellow. Only one specimen of this Pygmy Owlet was seen." S Y R N I U M N E W A R E N S E (Hodgs.) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. ii. p. 281 (1875). " No. 65. 2 • Irides yellow. I found this Owl seated on a branch of a small tree in a very dark ravine, and I wp.s some time before I could decide whether it was a bird or some dead leaves." This specimen is rather small, but there can scarcely be any question about its being identical with S. newarense and not with S. maingayi, which is the yellow-faced form found in the Malay Peninsula (cf. Hume, Str. F. vi. p. 27). As a rule S. maingayi and S. indranee have perfectly uniform faces of a deep ochreous colour, but one specimen ( § ) from Coonoor has the face dusky and barred with blackish, exactly as in S. newarense, and therefore it shows either that S. newarense occurs in the Nilghiris, or else that the latter range contains an intermediate form between S. newarense and S. indranee. The specimen sent by Mr. Wray has the wing 4 inches. It is evidently a very old bird, being very dark above and very coarsely barred below, with a dark band across the chest, where the crossbars are not so distinct. The face is deep rufous-ochre, with a iew indistinct blackish cross-bars. Altogether the specimen may be said to belong to the eastern race oi Syrnium newarense, with a tolerably uniform ochreous face. Such specimens are found in Formosa, Assam, Manipur, and Sikkim, where a perfect gradation takes place between them and typical S. newarense, leaving it absolutely impossible to draw any line between eastern and western examples. O R I O L U S C O N S A N G U I N E U S , Wardlaw Ramsay. "No. 59. d . Irides crimson ; bill pale blue-grey. The female is black, without the red breast- and wing-spots. It is not a common bird. The range seems to be from 3000 to 4000 feet, but I have a specimen shot in Kinta at not more than 100 or 200 feet above the sea-level, at the foot of the central range of the peninsula." The specimen sent is identical with one of the typical specimens collected by Mr. Carl Bock, and now in the British Museum. B H R I N G A R E M I F E R (Temm.) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. iii. p. 257 (1877). "No. 46. S 2 • Irides red-brown. The long tail-feathers of most of the males have no wehs on their shafts, excepting on the racket-ends, the portion covered by the ordinary tail being quite naked. I obtained two males with webs on the shafts, under the shorter tail-feathers, and was at first uncertain whether there might not be two species ; but as no difference was observahle in the tails of the females (the upper portion of the long tail-feathers being webbed in every specimen), it seems more probable that the birds with the webhed upper parts of the long feathers are young males." This is interesting, as continuing the range of the species southwards from Tenasserim, but it is also known from Java. |