( 471! ) 



s[)eciiuens ol' M. romita from Ijiuou Lad always longer wings than those from 

 Sumatra and Malacca. When I wrote the Catalogue of th- Swifts in the British 

 Museum (Vol. XVI. p. 518) I also mentioned the fact that s])ei-imens fmra tlie 

 Philijipiues are larger and have longer wings, but I did not consider this peculiarity 

 sufficient to distingnish between the two forms. Since then I saw a number of 

 specimens from the Northern Philijipines, which all had the wings about half an 

 inch longer than the numerous specimens of M. comata from the Malay Peninsula, 

 Sumatra, and Borneo, which I was able to measure. I therefore do not hesitate to 

 recognise the long-winged Philippine Islands form as a subspecies under the name of 



Macropteryx comata major subsp. nov. 



I confess that I cannot detect any other material diftereuce except the size, but tiie 

 wiugs of Luzon specimens measure constantly about o-.j inches, while specimens 

 from Borneo, etc., have the wing about 5 inches long. Skins from Snlu and Sibntu 

 have the wing 5 inches in length. The one from Bunguran, a m/ile, has a wing of 

 4-95 inches. 



In the Catalogue of Birds Vol. XVI. p. .jls, I gave the distribution of Macro- 

 pterj/x comata (Temm.) as follows : " From Teuasserim throughout the JIalay 

 Peninsula, extending into Siam; Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, Timor, Philijijiines." 

 Xow it seems to me a grave error to include Celebes and Timor in this list, although 

 these localities are mentioned by a number of authors, such as Gray {Hand-List I. 

 p. 65), Gates {B. Burmah II. p. 14), and others. All these statements seem to bs 

 copied from Cassin, who, in the Cat. Hinind. Mas. Philad. p. 15 (1853), enumerated 

 specimens of Macroptergx comata from Celebes and Timor. Neither Wallace, nor 

 A. B. Meyer, Duyvenbode, Riedel, the collectors of the Marquesa, Dr. Platen, Weber, 

 aud others, nor the recent investigations of Dr. A. B. Meyer's collectors, have brought 

 to light any specimens of this species from Celebes or Timor. We may, therefore, 

 fairly accept Salvadori's views * that Cassin's localities were unfounded. Indeed it 

 would be very peculiar if this characteristic Malayan species was found in such out- 

 lying places. On the other hand, it is found in the Sulu Islands (specimens in Tring 

 Museum). These Sulu specimens are exactly like those from Malacca, Borneo, and 

 Sumatra, and do not belong to the long-winged Philippine form. 



*o(i. Meiglyptes tukki (Less.). 



A male and a, female, Mt. Ranai, Bunguran, 10(JU feet elevation. 



I believe that these specimens are referable to M. tukki. Tiie male has the 

 feathers of the forehead and a line along the sides of the crown s])otted with 

 crimson, but I believe this is accidental, though a series of males from Bunguran 

 would be desirable to see whether this character might not be peculiar to Bunguran 

 specimens. Moreover the male in question docs not in all points agree witii the 

 description in Cat. B. XVIII. p. 389. The under wing-coverts are rather more than 

 buflfy white or yellowish white, being truly yellow, somewhat between canary-yellow 

 and maize-yellow on Hidgway's pi. vi. in Xomencl. Col., but nearer to the former : 

 the spots to the inner webs of the wing-quills are not white, but of the same yellow 

 colour, though jjerhaps a little duller. The entire colour is really olive with a 

 slight greenish tinge. These characters, however, are not si)eciHc, for one of the 

 two Jemales is as brown as the Malacca skins before me, and the spots on the remiges 



• AiDiali Mm. Civ. Geiiova Vol. V. p. 12t (Uccclii di Borneo, 1874). 



