AND ITS NEAREST ALLIES. 193 



In his answer upon Hume's remarks, Ibis 1878, p. 124, 

 Elliot declares not to know any bird agreeing with 

 Sclater's description of E. Ignitus in P. Z. S. 1863; he 

 further suggests that the bird , described by Latham as 

 Ph. ignitus , might be identical with E. nohilis from Borneo. 

 Later on, in the same volume p. 411, Elliot, who in the 

 meantime had had the opportunity of examining Reeves' 

 bird in the British Museum , points to its difference from 

 Latham's Ph. ignitus and considers it a hybrid between 

 E. nohilis and E. Vieilloti, having the chestnut color on 

 the flanks of the first and the white median rectrices of 

 the latter. This suggestion is supported by the evidence 

 that the bird had been kept in captivity and by the note 

 that it had been received from China. At the end of his 

 remarks , Elliot resumes his altered opinion about the 

 different species in the following terms : „As I formerly 

 suggested might be the case, I now consider P. ignitus 

 of Latham the same as P. nohilis of Sclater, the latter 

 name becoming a synonym ; and the second species , called 

 by me P. ignitus, should be known as P. Vieillofi; for, 

 judging by the specimen in the British Museum, I fail 

 to perceive any indications that would prove the existence 

 of a third species of this section of the genus Euplocamus.^' 



This last view of Elliot's has been adopted by Mr. Grant 

 in Catalogue XXII of the Birds in the British Museum 

 (1893), only has the name L. Vieilloti been altered into 

 L. rufa , which latter name was already proposed by Hume 

 (Str. Feath. 1877, p. 121) on the ground of its priority J). 

 As to Reeves' bird Mr. Grant seems to doubt its hybridity, 

 as he separately describes it in a foot-note on p. 289 , 

 suggesting that it possibly might belong to a different 

 species. 



In fact Reeves' bird belongs to L. sumatrana , created 



1) I do not think it right to accept this name, which has heen hestowed 

 hy Raffles (Trans. Linn. See. XIII, p. 321) upon a Sumatran red-tailed 

 female, which can helong to L. Vieilloti as well as to L. sumatrana and 

 therefore must he considered a douhtful synonym. 



Notes from the Leyden Museum, "Vol. XVII. 



]3 



