20 ON A COLLECTION OP BIRDS 



the head of H. sordidus Eyton, though he yields to the 

 opinion that no distinctive characters can be based upon 

 the color of the crest, but that if both species are really 

 distinct, there must be sought for better characters. Mr. 

 Hume cannot agree with the Marquis of Tweeddale that 

 H. concretus sen Hartlauhii is restricted to Java only, and 

 mentions the description of fully red-crested specimens from 

 Sumatra by Temminck, the occurrence of such Birds in Borneo 

 according to Malherbe and Salvadori (the latter seems to have 

 some doubts as to the trustworthiness of this locality) and a 

 specimen from Malacca , considered by Mr. Gould to be H. 

 concretus. A bird from Nealys (Malacca), considered by Mr. 

 Hume to be a true H. concretus .{[. t. p. 129), is most pro- 

 bably a nearly adult male, having got already the red 

 crown , while the red occipital plumes are not yet replaced 

 by the gray ones of the adult stage. 



Mr. Sharpe (Ibis 1879, p. 241) also throws some light 

 upon this question , though it is not clear to me , why 

 H. sordidus, which seems to him to be a distinct species, 

 would have to bear the older title of H. concretus. As to 

 the occurrence of H. Hartlauhii , Mr. Sharpe considers the 

 localities mentioned by Mr. Hume (vide supra) trustworthy 

 except that of Borneo , and thinks its entirely red crest a 

 good character for distinguishing the species, but would 

 nevertheless not be surprised if it afterwards would turn out 

 to be the very old full-plum aged stage of H. sordidus. 



A careful examination of all our Museum specimens of 

 this genus, amongst which the types of Temminck's Pecws 

 concretus from Java , Bauka — not Banda , as is errone- 

 ously mentioned in the letterpress to pi. 90 — and Su- 

 matra are still contained , convinced me of the impossibility 

 of keeping more than two species — the entirely red- 

 crested Javan form {H. concretus) and that with gray postoc- 

 cipital crest from other localities {H. sordidus) — as really 

 distinct. Our Museum Collection contains five specimens 

 from Java, two from Borneo, four from Banka, eight from 

 Sumatra and one from the Continent (Singapore). 

 Notes from the Leyden M.useuxn, Vol. IX. 



