to Gould's ' Birds of Asia.' 59 



With the ornithology of Borneo we are much better ac- 

 quainteclj thanks to the excellent work of Count Salvadorij 

 the ' Uccelli di Borneo/ which contains a complete record of 

 the avifauna of the island up to the year 1874. Since that 

 date Mr. Alfred Everett and his brother Mr. Henry Everett 

 in Sarawak, Mr. Hugh Low and the late Governor Ussher 

 in Labuan and in the provinces of Brunei and Lumbidan, and 

 Mr. W. B. Pryer in Sandakan, have added greatly to our 

 knowledge of the birds of Borneo, and have shown that the 

 relations of its avifauna are mostly with that of Sumatra and 

 the Malayan peninsula, that few forms are peculiar to the 

 island, and that it receives a considerable migratory influx of 

 Siberian and Eastern Asiatic forms which make Borneo their 

 winter home. 



Our knowledge of the avifauna of the Philippine Islands 

 has also been vastly increased since Mr. Gould commenced 

 the present work. Many species had been recorded by Son- 

 nerat and the older writers; but their accounts were often 

 confused and meagre, and it was not till the late Mr. Cuming 

 had visited the archipelago that British ornithologists re- 

 ceived any definite and trustworthy information respecting 

 the birds of the Philippine Islands. The Prussian expedition 

 to Eastern Asia resulted in the publication of a list of Philip- 

 pine birds by Dr. von Martens, which, however, was not 

 very satisfactory ; but the explorations of Dr. A. B. Meyer 

 were of a more enduring importance, as it was principally on 

 his collections that the excellent memoir on the Birds of 

 the Philippine Archipelago by the Marquis of Tweeddale was 

 founded. Following closely upon this, we ourselves pub- 

 lished a list of the birds obtained by Dr. Steere, who visited 

 many of the islands on which no naturalist had before set 

 foot, and whose collections contained a large number of new 

 forms. Perhaps the most interesting result of Dr. Steere^s 

 expedition was the demonstration that the Philippine Island 

 of Palawan possessed a distinct Bornean and, therefore, Ma- 

 layan element — a result which has been amply confirmed by 

 Mr. Alfred Everett in the same island. The latter naturalist 

 was sent by Lord Tweeddale ; and his expedition has proved 



