192 ON PHASIANÜS IGNITUS 



Latham's Gen. Hist. VIII, p. 184 (1823), where the bird 

 is told to have , as I was kindly informed by Dr. Sclater , 

 »the upper part of belly ferruginous, varying into deep 

 orauge, and the four centre tail-feathers white". As already 

 noticed before , Vieillot , in his Galerie des Oiseaux , says 

 in the description the middle tail-feathers to be „d'un 

 roux clair ou blanches" ; this latter color would agree with 

 our L. sumatrana. The same species again is described 

 by Jardine in Nat. Libr. Orn. Ill, p. 214, uuder the 

 name of E. ignitus; on the accompanying plate, representing 

 the male , the central tail-feathers are white , but on the 

 flanks neither red feathers nor white shaft-streaks are to 

 be seen. The female is represented on the plate with a 

 red tail and therefore belongs to either L. Vieilloti or 

 L. sumatrana. 



As the third species of Euplocamus in his essay Sclater 

 established E. nobilis. The plate added to the description 

 fully represents the characters of this new species. E. 

 nobilis , the only species found in Borneo , was formerly only 

 mentioned by S. Muller, Verb. Land- en Volkenk. p. 376, 

 and by Low , Sarawak p. 411, under the name of Euplo- 

 camus ignitus. 



Dr. Sclater's view , developed in his essay , was generally 

 adopted during several years , until the publication of 

 Elliot's monograph of the Phasianidae (1871). In this 

 monograph Elliot acknowledged only two species of this 

 genus: E. ignitus and E. nobilis. Under E. ignitus are 

 united both E. ignitus and E. Vieilloti^ the first being 

 considered an immature stage of the latter , and no mention 

 is made of Reeves' bird in the British Museum. Since the 

 issue of this monograph some authors have adopted the 

 view of Elliot's , while others kept sticking to Sclater's idea. 



Hume, Stray Feathers 1877, p. 119, in criticising Elliot's 

 view and defending that of Sclater's , clearly shows that 

 E. ignitus cannot be identical with E. Vieilloti and asks 

 what to make of the bird in the British Museum, described 

 by Sclater as E. ignitus. 



Notes from tlie Ley den JMuseum, Vol. X.VII. 



