THE IBIS. 



THIRD SERIES. 



No. VI. APRIL 1873. 



XII. — On Birds recently observed or obtained in the Island of 

 Negros, Philippines. By Arthur, Viscount Walden, P.Z.S., 

 and Edgar Leopold Layard, F.Z.S. 



(Plates IV.-VI.) 



The Philippine Islands supplied the materials for the earliest 

 memoir on exotic birds that has come down to us, written by 

 the Moravian Jesuit, Camel, in 1703 (Phil. Trans, vol. xxiii.). 

 From examples collected in the Philippine archipelago by 

 Poivre and by Sonnerat, descriptious of many of the oldest 

 species in our books were taken. Still, even at the present 

 time, our knowledge of Philippine ornithology continues to be 

 of the most elementary character, only 193 species being noted 

 (v. Martens, J. fiir 0. 1866) as known to inhabit the large and 

 diversified area contained within the limits of the archipelago — 

 an area which occupies an estimated surface of 110,000 square 

 miles of dry land. When we consider the favourable geo- 

 graphical position of these islands (closely connected with 

 Borneo on the S.W., with Celebes on the S., and the Moluccas 

 on the S.S.W., and lying in the direct track of the migrants 

 from north-eastern and eastern Asia), the varied physical cha- 

 racters of the islands themselves, their mountainous regions 



SER. III. VOL. II. I 



