PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



issued lf4.t'N4>S'~^? ^y '^« 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol.108 Washington : 1958 No. 3402 



TAXONOMY AND NOMENCLATURE OF THREE SPECIES OF 

 LONCHURA (AVES : ESTRILDINAE) 



By Kenneth C. Parkes ^ 



In August and September 1956 I collected birds for a virus re- 

 search project in central Luzon, Philippine Islands, The museum 

 skins and skeletons prepared as a by-product of this project are now 

 in Carnegie Museum, and represent the first modern collection of 

 Asiatic birds in that institution. Virtually all of the work, therefore, 

 of identifying these Philippine specimens has been done at the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and the U, S. National 

 Museum (USNM). In connection with these more-or-less routine 

 identifications, a certain amount of revisionary work proved to be 

 necessary for certain species, several with ranges extending far beyond 

 the Philippines. It has been thought desirable to publish such 

 findings separately rather than include them in the final report of the 

 1956 collection, where they would be more-or-less irrelevant. The 

 present paper treats the three species of the large estrildine genus 

 Lonchura whose ranges include the Philippines. 



The field work was carried out as part of a project of the Graduate 

 School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, under the sponsor- 

 ship of the Commission on Viral Infections, Armed Forces Epidemi- 

 ological Board, and supported in part by the Office of the Surgeon 

 General, U. S. Department of the Army. Specimens were collected 

 and prepared with the invaluable assistance of Mr. Telesforo Oane 

 and the generous counsel of Dr. Canuto G. Manuel, both of the 



> Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, Pa. 



469348-58 279 



