of the Genus Micropternus. 15 



mature, adult birds having a yellow spot at the angle of the 

 lower mandible and the under surface of the body entirely 

 uniform. Although the prevailing colour of the head and 

 neck in birds of this species is light ochreous brown, indi- 

 viduals do occur (apparently equally adult) in which these 

 parts are of a rufous-brown. The Leiden Museum contains 

 an example of the present species said to have been procured 

 in Cochin China [Verreaux) . 



Mr. Hume makes M.fokiensis a synonym of M. brachy- 

 urus ; but I cannot agree with this author that, ^"^ according 

 to Swinhoe's own showing, the Foochow bird is referable to 

 M. brachyurus," for even in the first record of the bird in 

 'The Ibis^ for 18G1, p. 267, as M. badius, Swinhoe adds, 

 p. 409, t. c. : — " The Brachypternus from Foochow is much 

 larger (nearly double the size) than B. badius of Java. It is 

 of a much richer brown, but would appear otherwise similar.'^ 

 These remarks Avere made before he described the Foochow 

 bird as a distinct species. 



6. Micropternus holroydi. 



Micropternus holroydi, Swinhoe, Ibis, 1870, p. 95 ; id. 

 P. Z. S. 1871, p. 393 ; David & Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 54 

 (1877). 



Picus holroydi, Giebel, Thes. Orn. p. 159 (1876). 



Adult male (type). Entire back, rump, and scapularies 

 dark brown, with narrow and almost obsolete rufous barring ; 

 wing-coverts, bastard wing, and primary-coverts barred rufous 

 and black ; quills barred rufous and black across both webs, 

 tips of the outermost primaries black ; shafts of quills 

 reddish, those of the inner secondaries inclining to dark 

 brown; upper tail-coverts rufous, barred with black; tail 

 rufous, with not more than six transverse black bars, these 

 being slightly narrower than the rufous space between ; 

 shafts reddish brown ; nasal plumes, lores, and entire head 

 and throat brown, the feathers having paler margins ; o( ciput, 

 nape, and sides of the neck like the head, but the margins of 

 the feathers are more rufous; the feathers at the base of 

 the upper mandible, also those under and behind the eye, 



