( 517 ) 



*11. Phyllergates everetti sp. nov. 



Before describing this interesting form of Phyllergates I must make some 

 remarks on the otlier forms of tlie geuns. 



When Dr. Sharpe, iu 1SS3, wrote the seventh volume of the Catalogue of 

 Birds, he only knew of two species, viz. Phyllergates coronatus (Jerd. & Blyth) 

 from India and P. cucullatus (Temm.) from Java and Sumatra. Since then Mr. 

 Whitehead discovered a little tailor-bird on Mount Kina Balu in Borneo, which 

 Sharpe * called P. cinereicollis, diagnosing it as follows : " P. similis P. cucullfUo, 

 sed collo postico et colli lateribus dare cimreis distinguendus.'" This same form 

 was afterwards collected by Everett's hunters on Kina Bain, while P. cucullatus was 

 also found in the Malay Peninsula by the late Mr. Davison. Whether, however, 

 the Kina Bala bird is diflerent from the P. cucullatus of Java, Sumatra, and 

 Malacca seems questionable. I am indeed afraid that quite old males of 

 P. cucullatus do not difier at all from the so-called P. cinereicollis, but the matter 

 should be more fully investigated. Mr. Whitehead also got a bird of this group in 

 Lnzon, called P. cinereicollis by Grant, Ibis, 1894, p. 510. Mr. Grant says there : 

 " This form appears to me barely sejJarable from the Indian bird P. coronattis. It 

 would be extremely difficult to determine a specimen without first knowing the 

 locality whence it is obtained." This remark, however, is wrong, the white inner 

 web of the outer rectrices, which have no white in P. cucullatus and cinereicollis, 

 alone being sufficient to distinguish the two. On the other hand, the Luzon bird 

 has a small white mark on the inner web of the outer tail-feathers, and a narrow 

 inner edge of the same colour, together with a slightly shorter bill, and might be 

 separated subspecifically as 



Phyllergates cucullatus philippinus subsp. nov. 



Type from Benguet, North Luzon, in the Tring Museum, collected by Whitehead. 

 Among the birds sent by Mr. Everett from Flores are also two Phyllergates 

 which differ again from all the others, and which I name 



Phyllergates everetti sp. nov. 



They have the orange forehead and forepart of the crown, but from the nape to 

 the tail they are olive-green, of a darker shade and more olive than in the other 

 forms. The outer pair of rectrices has a brownish white edge along the inner web; 

 the bill is longer than in any of the others. The bill from the base measures 18 to 

 18-5 mm. ; the wing, g 49, ? 46 ; the tail 44—49 : the tarsus 18-5 mm. 



A male and a female from 3000 and 4000 feet in S. Flores. 



While speaking of the present genus I wish also to correct some mistakes. In 

 Journ. f. Orn. 1889, p. 385, I mentioned two specimens of P. coronatus, shot by me 

 on the Gunong Ijau in Perak. I said then that they were an adult pair, and that 

 the female was not young, as was evident from its behaviour also ; but I have now 

 seen so many carefully dissected skins of P. coronatus that there is no longer any 

 doubt that I was wrong, and that my supposed _/«?««& was really a young l)ird. It 

 would not be uninteresting to have a series from Perak, as the taU seems to 

 diifer slightly, but I cannot be sure about this, as the tail of my adult Perak male is 

 not complete. Discussing the tails of these birds, 1 must further mention that they 



* Ibis, 1888, p 479 ; Whitehead in Exjil. Kina Balu. p. 223. 



