AND ITS NEAREST ALLIES. 195 



Palembaiig specimens of L. nohilis from Banka on one side 

 and of L. Vieilloti from the Highlands of Padang from the 

 other , and of a hybridisation between both species as sug- 

 gested by Elliot is not excluded , though it is rather im- 

 probable. 



There was ranch chance last summer to settle this latter 

 question experimentally in the Zoological Garden at Am- 

 sterdam , where a male of L. Vieilloti was kept together 

 with a black-tailed hen (thus very likely L. nobilis). The 

 result of the interbreeding were a couple of chicks, which 

 unfortunately very soon died from cold. I hope that another 

 time the result of this experiment will be more favorable 

 and throw some light upon this vexing question. If L. su- 

 matrana in fact once might turn out to be a hybrid between 

 L. Vieilloti and L. nobilis, the same possibility might be 

 adopted as well for L. ignita, oï which we do not know 

 the habitat at all and of which the female and immature 

 stages of plumage are absolutely unknown. 



What we also very greatly want to know is , how the 

 change in the color of plumage is performed in males and 

 females. As we have seen before in the descriptions of the 

 species , there are amongst the red-tailed as well as amongst 

 the black-tailed females specimens with different grades 

 between red and black centres to the feathers on the lower 

 surface , but we are absolutely unable to tell the reason 

 for this inconstancy. Is it based upon a difference in age? 

 And if so , which of them are the younger , the red-centred 

 or the black-centred birds? 



Have there never young males been mistaken for adult 

 females? And cannot the difference in color of the females 

 as described in our literature, partly be caused by such 

 mistakes? It is certainly worth calling the attention of 

 Directors of zoological gardens and private breeders to these 

 questions, which for a great deal can only be satisfactorily 

 dissolved by breeding and interbreeding the different spe- 

 cies and making careful observations upon the products 

 during the different phases from the chick to the adult bird. 



Notes from the Hjeyden IMuseuxn, "Vol. XVII. 



