36 Mr. A. H. Everett on the 



around her with half-sjjread wings, and as the wings were 

 raised the fluffy pectoral tufts were instantly displayed, every 

 hair-like plume apparently starting erect and radiating, so 

 that they resembled ball -like blossoms of rich orange-yellow. 

 These actions were repeated many times until the birds flew 

 out of sight ; and they seemed to indicate that the male bird 

 was conscious that the play of the sunlight on his gorget 

 brought out its brilliancy, and that the birds had the same 

 sense of colour in kind, if not in degree, as a human being 

 possesses. 



Anthreptes rhodoljEma, Shelley. 

 Three specimens. New to Palawan. 



Arachnothera dilutior, Sharpe. 



Two specimens, noted as females by my hunter, exhibit 

 small pectoral tufts of a yellower hue than is the case in 

 male birds. I find that three specimens shot and noted 

 from dissection as females by myself at Puerto Princesa 

 also have pectoral tufts, but smaller and paler in hue than 

 in male birds. It seems curious that an error should have 

 occurred in all five instances and young males have been 

 determined as females ; but I do not feel confident that this 

 may not have been so. The eye- wattle in this bird is quite 

 inconspicuous in dried skins, but in the living bird, when 

 alarmed or excited, it becomes distended and forms a promi- 

 nent circlet of brilliant lemon-yellow. 



Calornis panayensis (Scop.). 



These glossy Starlings were quite the commonest species in 

 the shore-jungle and even in the mangrove-swamps at Rocky 

 Bay in January and February. By far the greater number 

 were in immature streaked plumage, with the shining dark 

 green of the mature plumage only beginning to show, so 

 that it is clear that they take fully a year in assuming the 

 adult livery, if not longer. At the time of my visit there 

 occurred at frequent intervals along the shore perfectly leaf- 

 less trees {Erythrina ?) bearing abundance of large pyramidal 

 bracts of pure scarlet-lake flowers and branches of long black 

 seed-pods. These trees, which were visible from a great 



