" Contributions to Malayan Ornithology." 175 



Gmelin gave the above title Merle de Mindanao, and states that 

 it was brought home by Sonnerat. Were it not for the name 

 bestowed, we should have no means of tracing its origin. 



Mr. Blyth {I. c.) separated the Ceylon and Malayan from the 

 Indian Copsychus, on the ground that the female of this last 

 was ashy above, while the females of the two former have the 

 back of a much darker blackish ash. This distinction appears to 

 be well founded. The Ceylon bird has received in consequence 

 the title of C. ceylonensis, Sclater. The Malabar Copsychus, how- 

 ever, would seem also to belong to the Ceylon form. In the ge- 

 nerality of Ceylon and Malabar examples the bill is extremely 

 short ; but in some it is scarcely less than in true C. saularis. 



From both the Ceylon and Indian forms the Malayan is said 

 by Mr. Blyth to differ (/. c.) by having only three (and not four) 

 outer rectrices white. I have no Malaccan example to compare ; 

 but this distinction holds good in the Javan D'hyal, C. amaenus 

 (Horsf,). And such is the case also in C. pluto. The D'hyals 

 I have examined from all parts of India, Malabar excepted, from 

 China, Cambodia, and Tongoo, are not to be separated. At the 

 same time the bills vary much in their dimensions. The nest- 

 ling changes at once from its brown and rufous nestling- plu- 

 mage into that of the adult. The pure white outer edges of 

 the two secondaries appear in the earliest stages, even when 

 the quills are still edged with pale rufous. 



Comparison must be made between Malaccan, Sumatran, 

 Javan, and Philippine individuals before the correct title for the 

 Malaccan D^hayal can be determined. 



77. CiTTACINCLA MACRURA (Gm.). 



I am unable to detect any characters whereby individuals from 

 Ceylon, Central India, Malacca, Java, and Sumatra can be dis- 

 tinguished. A very young bird from the Salween river has the 

 belly, thigh-coverts, and under tail-coverts pure white. 



78. LOPHOCITTA GALERICULATA (CuV.). 



Platylophus, Sw. (Faun. Bor. Amer. 1831), has precedence 

 over Lophocitta, G. R. Gray*. This curious species is placed by 

 Dr. Stoliczka under the Ampelida. 



* [Cf. Gray, Cat. Gen. B. App. no. 1042.— Ed.] 



