FROiM WESTERN SUMATRA. 19 



Hemicercus concretus^, Blyth, J. A. S. B. XIV. p. 195 (1845). 

 Dendrocopus sordidus, Eyt. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. XVI, p. 229 



(2) (1845). 

 Hemicercus coccometopus, Rchb. Handb. Picinae, p. 401 (sed non 



descr. cf ad.), t. 656, fig. 4364—65 (1854). 

 Hemicercus sordidus , Cab. & Heine, Mus. Hein. IV, 2, p. 177 (1863); 



— Salvad. Ucc. di Borneo, p. 46 (1874); — Tweedd. Ibis 



1877, p. 291; — Hume, Stray Feathers, 1877, p. 128. — 



Salvad. Ucc. di Sumatra, p. 181 (1879); — Sharpe, Ibis 1879, 



p. 241. 

 Hemicercus brookeanus, Salvad. Atti R. Acad. Sc. di Torino. III. p. 



525 (1868); id. Ucc. di Borneo, p. 44 (1874). 



3 specimens (2 ad. cT» 1 ad. Q). 



»Iris brown, bill black, feet dark gray. Native name: 

 Si ontongy 



There exists a great confusion in literature about the 

 different forms of this genus which successively has been 

 split into five species , adding to the above mentioned ones 

 that of H. Hartlauhii Malh. The most eminent students 

 of Indian and Malayan Ornithology agree that the number 

 of species must be reduced. Salvadori in his »Uccelli di 

 Borneo," doubts somewhat as to the specific distinctness of 

 all the different species , after having united H. coccome- 

 topus Rchb. with H. sordidus Eyton, The Marquis of 

 Tweeddale (Ibis 1877, p. 291) also unites H. brookeanus 

 Salvad. with H. sordidus Eyton. He considers the Javan 

 H. concretus Temm. seu H. Hartlauhii Malh. to be a distinct 

 species on account of the entirely red crest in adult males 

 and points out that the confusion between the two spe- 

 cies derived from an immature stage of plumage of H. 

 sordidus, in which the postoccipital if not the whole crest 

 is flame-colored and which stage occasionally was mistaken 

 for the real red-crested H. concretus. According to this 

 author the occurrence of this species beyond Java rests on 

 no good authority. Mr. Hume in his » Birds of Tenasserim"(l. c.) 

 also acknowledges but two species , uniting the entirely red- 

 crested H. Hartlauhii Malh. with ^. co?icre^MS of Tem minck, 

 and all the other species with gray postoccipital crest , under 



Notes from the ï-ieyden Miuseura, "Vol. IX. 



