Ornithology of Borneo. 5 



e. ? . Bintulu. Soft parts same as in the male. 



The series which Mr. Everett now brings shows that C. 

 salvadorii is most closely allied to C. macrurus ; but the prin- 

 cipal diflferences seem to be in the blackish colour of the lores 

 and region of the eye, and the very distinct white cheek-stripe. 

 In C. macrurus the lores are reddish, as also is the side of 

 the face, and the white cheek-stripe is nearly obsolete. 



[Santubong, Kalakah, Eejang, Bruit, Bintulu. This Goat- 

 sucker is by no means uncommon in Sarawak ; but it is very 

 locally distributed, being confined to the coast-line and its 

 immediate vicinity, and, so far as my observation has gone, 

 to the sandy portion of the coast. The note is single, and 

 sounds like the distant stroke of a mallet on wood. The 

 eggs are creamy white, with faint purple-grey marblings, and 

 they are laid among the short turf which holds the sand 

 together beyond high- water mark. The stomachs are gene- 

 rally full of beetles, chiefly a small green chafer, but also 

 longicorns and elaters. It is noteworthy that in places 

 haunted by this species one never hears the note of any other 

 kind of Goatsucker, although the '^ Pongok '' Owl {N. scu- 

 tulata) sometimes approaches within a mile of the shore. — 

 A. E.] 



Merops bicolor (Bodd.) ; Sharpe, Ibis, 1876, p. 33. 



[An abundant species, but confined to the sandy tracts on 

 the shore-line, though a pair will be met with now and again 

 as far as 20 miles inland, where a sandy bank happens to 

 offer facilities for nidiiication. A female shot in April had 

 a shelled egg in the oviduct, I am inclined to think these birds 

 are migratory, but am not yet satisfied on this point. A pair 

 shot May 20, 1870, showed no difference in plumage ; but 

 two females shot in August 1873 had the chestnut of the 

 crown dashed with rich dark green. The only external dif- 

 ferences between the sexes are that the green hues of the 

 male are brighter and yellower than in the female, in which 

 a bluer cast predominates, and in which, the green of the 

 belly is paler ; and the shafts of the two median rectrices are 

 usually developed further beyond the vanes in the male than 



