Letters, Announcements, S^c. 389 



with black margins." Now, on the other hand, Blyth dis- 

 tinctly stated, in his original description of B. affinis (J. A. 

 S. B. 1847, p. 1180), that it "has no white spots on the 

 wing," that the " throat and breast " are " plain rufous, 

 with a few white feathers, having a subterminal dusky border 

 on the fore neck and sides of the breast." Mr. Biyth intro- 

 duces B. affinis as being " very similar to B. javensis in the 

 plumage figured by Horsfield " (Zool. Res. Java, t. 37) — that 

 is, with unspotted wings — but "smaller." Again, two years 

 later [op. cit. 1849, p. 807), Mr. Blyth, when detailing the 

 characters which distinguish B. moniliger, Layard, from P. 

 javensis, Horsf. apud Blyth (nee Horsf., sed =P. stellatus, 

 Go\Ad,= B.stictopterus, Cab.), and from B. affinis, remarks : — 

 "the bright white spots on the wings" (of B. moniliger) 

 "distinguish it as readily from B. affinis^ Indeed it is 

 the uniform chestnut-coloured unspotted wing which at 

 once distinguishes B. affinis, Blyth (when in rufous plumage) , 

 from both B. moniliger, Layard, ex Ceylon, and B. javensis, 

 Horsf. apud Blyth, ex Malacca, nee Horsf. It is essential 

 to the argument to bear in mind that the larger of the 

 two Malaccan forms (I am excluding B. auritus) is the bird 

 always referred to as B. javensis, Horsf., by Blyth, except 

 where he quotes Horsfield's plate (Zool. Bes. Java), and that 

 Blyth, like every one else, until Dr. Cabanis descriminated 

 and clearly described the Malaccan species (for Mr. Gould's 

 diagnosis is too vague, and he gave Java as the habitat), 

 assumed the latter to belong to the same species as the 

 Javan bird. The Malaccan bird, B. stellatus=B. stictopterus , 

 has spotted wing-coverts in both its rufous and brown phases 

 of plumage ( ? (^ ?) ; and from Mr. Blanford's clear descrip- 

 tive remarks, it is evidently the species identified by him in 

 Mr. Hume's museum as belonging to B. affinis, Blyth. It is 

 a bird of which examples occur in almost every Malaccan 

 collection of any importance, either in the bright rufous or 

 in the brown phase of plumage, while B. affinis does not appear 

 to be so common. The difference in the width of the gape 

 noted by Mr. Blanford is just the difference observable be- 

 tween the gape of P. javensis, apud Blyth, ex Malacca (=P. 

 stellatus, Gould), and B. a finis, Blyth. 



SER. IV. VOL. I. 2d 



