IN TIMOIi'LAUT, 361 



albis ; Cauda nigra, redricihus diiahun externis alh) ierminatis; rcstro et 

 pedibus nigris: long, tola (>'2, a/ce ^'7, caudce 3'3. 



IJab. Inss. Tenimberenses. 



Obs, Affiuis 7v. atro-virentl et Z. trkoJort, sed supercilii^ cnrth albis 



dividenda. 



■ 30. Artamus leucogaster. Val. 



A. miisscJienbroeki, Meyor, loc. sup. c.'t. 



Ilab. Larat, ins, Teuimberensem. 



Artamus mrtsschenhroehi, is tbe name proposed by Dr. Moj'cr for the 

 Timor-laut Wood-Swallow, wliicb has been deterininei by Dr. Sclater aa 

 A. hucoga^ter, Val. (P. Z. S. 1883, pp. 51 and 200). .Of tho Artamui^ from 

 Dr. Meyer's identical locality I have in my own collection three Rpccimcns. 

 I have examined carefully seventeen others from different localities, in the 

 very long series in the British Museum derived from (elehcs, tlie riuHp- 

 pines, Sumatra, 3d.\n.,'LomhQck,Y\orQ&, Timor, Batjian, Buru, Ilahnalidra, 

 Goram, Aru, Eatanta, and from N. Australia. The species in the Dresden 

 Museum from tho underlined localities are admitted by Dr. Meyer to 

 belong to A, leucogaster. It is impossible to separate my Timor-laut 

 skins from specimens collected in Zebu by the Challenqer Expedition, 



and determined by Lord Tweeddalc (P. Z S., 1877, pp. 54-1-515). TJio 

 colour in both isabso'utely the same. LordTweeildale, however, remarks 

 on the difference of dress— "one in which the upper jjlumagc is of a 

 light bluish and cinereous colour, the other where it is of a more smoky 

 brown and bluish ash. This does not seem to depend on sex ; for one of 

 these examples (Zebu 3G2) is mar'ced $ , while I possess a Luzon example 

 exactly similar, which Dr. Meyer determined to be a ? . The other Zebu 

 example (No. 370) is marked ?,and is in the paler bluish-grey attire." 

 I feel satisfied, after examining the specimens in tlu^ British Museum and 

 in my own collection, that the difference in coloration is one dnc to age, 

 for in young birds, the plumage is lighter than in the adult state. Dr, 

 Meyer's observation that the dark niantle reaches, in Timor-laut fkins 

 only, just to the root of the tail, while in A. leucogaster it overlaps by 

 about a centimetre, is, in as far as the scries referred to enables an opinion 

 to be formed, one not sufficiently constant to support specific separation. 

 In several Timor-laut specimens examined, the dark plumage overlaps tho 

 tail more than 1 centimetre, and even more than in others from diflfercut 

 parts of the Archipelago which have been liitherto recognised as J. 

 leucof/asfer. In skins of A. leurognster from Mysol and Marnssar, tho 

 mantle is just conterminous with the root of tlie tail. Ilea! ly, however, 

 the absolute constancy of these measurements can l>c drtcrnuned only with 

 accuracy in the flesh, for the way in which the skin is maminilatLd will 

 increase or diminish them by several centimetres. The samn holds _ 

 regard to another character given as differential— the grcuier amoiuit, in 

 Timor-laut specimens, of white on the rump and upper ♦^^'-j'^J''^*^: /" 

 my own specimens the white on the rump varies from 22-dl milliiu. 

 in length, while in eight other skins from different regions pf the 

 Archipelago the range is from 26-32 millim., giving in the latter indeed 

 a wider zone than in those from Timor-laut. la the long srrios of 



British Museum skins, the whltf tips of all hut the two middle iaiUfcail^rB, 



another of Dr. Meyer's differential characters, is quite inconstant. In 

 several Timor-laut skins not only these two tail feathers, but several 

 others of the remiges, are without a white band, while in some examples 

 it is even less than in undisputed J. leucogaster. In yovvg birds the wliite 

 tips are very pronounced, not on the reraiges only, but on the primaries 

 and secondaries of the wing also. The Philippine (Zebu) birds, already 



with 



