23S OX A COLLECTION OF BIRDS [1873. 



7. Picus ANDAMANEXSis, Blvth, J. A. S. B. 1859, p. 412, "Port Blair." 



" S. Andaman : ? , cf , iris dark brown ; bill dark slate-colour ; darkish on maxilla ; legs 



and feet dark olive-green." 



Represented by six individuals, four males and two females. All possess three pairs of 

 distinct and prominent pure white spots on the middle rectrices, and a fourth pair, more or less 

 indistinct, towards the apex. 



ILis, isrs, 8. TnuiPON.\x HODGii (Blvth), J. A. S. B. 1860, p. 105, " Port Blair." 



P- ^"^- 8. Andaman. 



9. Merops quinticolor, Vieillot, N. Diet. xiv. p. 21 (1817), ex Levaillant. 



Le Guepier quudicolar, Levaillant, Hist. Nat. Guepiers, p. 51, pi. 15, " Ceylon." 



" S. Andaman : January and February, d , $ , iris lake, legs and feet greenish black, bill 



black." 



Appears to be very common. In no respect different from Ceylon, Malabar, and Burmese 



examples. 



Mr. Swinhoe has pointed out (P. Z. S. 1871, p. 348. no. 81) that the Javan form is specifically 



different from the Indian. One character mentioned by him is not peculiar to the Javan bird, 



namely the blue tail. The Javan species, however, appears constantly to want the chestnut 



triangular throat-mark, the yellow throat being sharply separated from the green breast by a 



well-defined black band. ]\Ir. Swinhoe further remarks that the Indian species must take the 



title of Merops crijthrocephalus, Briss. This is Gmelin's title (S. N. i. p. 403. no. 13), founded on 



Merops indkus erythrocephalus, Briss. (Ornith. iv. p. 563), a species which Brisson never saw, 



and which he described from a drawing made by Poivre of a bird said to have come from the 



East Indies. It is impossible from Brisson's account to determine the species ; and Gmelin's 



title must therefore be suppressed. Vieillot bestowed the title of quinficolor on a species figured 



and described by Levaillant (/. c), and of which Levaillant states that he had received eight 



individuals, dried, fi-om Ceylon. The plate and description are, notwithstanding, taken from a 



Javan bird. At page 55 of the same work Levaillant figured and described a second species, 



said to have been brought from Java by Laichenot. An immature example of either the Javan 



or the Indian species is represented ; but as Levaillant describes the throat as being covered by 



"une plaque triangulaire d'un roux jaunatre," I suspect that the subject of his description was 



Ibis, 1873 either a Ceylonese or a continental example. On it Vieillot [torn. cit. p. 17) founded liis title 



p. 302. ^£ ^Merops leschenaulti. Unfortunately no title has ever been given since Levaillaut's time to 



the Indian species ; and rather than disturb the received nomenclature Vieillot's title is here 



retained. 



10. EiRYSTOMi-s ORIENTALI.S (Linn.), S. N. i. p. 159 (1766). 

 "S. Andaman, December 31." 



11. Sauropatis culoris (Bodd.), Tabl. PI. Enl. p. 49 (1783). 



" S. Andaman : d , iris reddish brown ; $ , iris bright brown ; Ross. Isl." 



