100 ON DE. STOLICZKA'S "CONTRIBUTIONS [1871. 



to decide from descriptions alone the identity or non-identity of many of the species described by 

 the older authors ; and the ornithology of the Indo-Malayan countries having attracted the 

 attention of writers from the earliest period, its literature is very considerable. We must 

 not, therefore, be surprised at finding some corrections needed in Dr. Stoliczka's interesting paper, 

 and that his conclusions, here and there, require some modification. Having for many years 

 devoted much time to the study of Malayan ornithology, and having had considerable opportu- 

 nities of consulting both books and specimens, I propose to make a few remarks on some of the 

 more important observations and statements of the learned Doctor. 



The suggestive introduction to the "Contributions," however, contains some sweeping 

 generalizations, which first deserve special notice. We are told that more than one half the species 

 inhabiting Sumatra, Java, the greater part of Borneo, the Malayan peninsula, from Singapore to 

 province AVellesley, and including the island of Pinang, are absolutely the same. Upon what data is 

 this assertion based ? In the absence of any authentic and exhaustive lists of the species inhabiting 

 these several regions, it is not in our power to deny its accuracy ; but, until such lists have been 

 pi'cpared and analyzed, it remains equally beyond our power to affirm its truth. The facts I have 

 been enabled to collect, insufficient, 1 admit, to be deemed conclusive, tend to prove that nearly 

 all the birds of the Malaccan peninsula are identical with those of the island of Sumatra, but 

 that Sumatra over and above possesses species that do not occur in the peninsula of Malacca, that 

 Java contains a large number of species which difi'er from those of Malacca and Sumatra, and 

 Ibis, 1871, that Borneo possesses species some of which are Javan and others Malaccan in their identities, 

 p. ibO. J exclude, of course, the Accipitres, Grallce, and Anseres from the compaiison. 



" Several of the birds noted from the Wellesley province represent intermediate types 

 between the northern Indo-Burmese and the southern Malayan forms." A careful perusal of 

 Dr. Stoliczka's paper has not enabled me to find one positive fact to support this statement. Not 

 a single indisputable instance is given of a Province- Wellesley individual presenting characters 

 distinguishing it from a Malaccan individual on the one side, and from an Indo-Burmese on the 

 other. 



Dr. Stoliczka is energetic in his denunciation of the practice of giving specific titles to forms 

 from difiierent areas, such as India, Burma, the Malay peninsula, and Java, which differ only in 

 a certain degree from one another. The learned Doctor does not define the amount of diftc'rence 

 necessary to constitute a species, but continues — "Such artificial specific distinctions may look 

 very well in a catalogue of birds, or on the labels in a museum, when perhaps one or two speci- 

 mens from distant localities are considered to indicate an unusual richness of the collection ; but 

 they are far from sufficient to illustrate the fauna of a province, and those so-called species have 

 often no existence in nature." Let us admit, though only for the sake of argument, that natu- 

 ralists when endeavouring to bring together examples of nearly allied forms from widely separated 

 areas, are not actuated by higher motives than those here suggested ; still do they not do more 

 to illustrate the fauna of a district than if they ignored the facts thus acquired ? Do not many of 

 these facts raise some of the most perplexing questions in natural history — notably the question 

 what is and what is not a species I If ornithologists are open to the imputation contained in the 

 passage quoted, how is it that all the inliabitants of one distant region, and not merely a trifling 

 percentage, are not described under distinct titles, in order that they "may look well in a 



