294 OX THE BIEDS INHABITING [1875. 



Layard, who made a small collection of birds in the islands of Xegros and Guimaras * ; and> 

 lastly Dr. A. Bernhard Meyer has explored the equally unknown island of Zebu. Dr. Meyer 

 havint^ with "reat courtesy placed the bulk of his collection at my disposal, it was my original 

 intention to have confined myself to a bare catalogue of its contents; but, it having been 

 suo-o-ested to me that a complete list of the known Philippine t birds would prove more generally 

 useful and would supply a want much felt in the ornithological literature of the Indian region, 

 I have ventured, with much diffidence, to prepare this catalogue of authentic Philippine birds. 

 It is true that a valuable list of the Philippine birds has akeady been published (in 1866) by 

 Dr. Eduard v. Martens $, from which I have derived the greatest assistance ; stiU in it several 

 authentic species are omitted, in some instances titles belonging to the same are treated as 

 belono-ino- to distinct species, and, moveover, some new species have been discovered and described 

 since Dr. v. Martens wrote. Nor in the somewhat intricate synonymy is the subject in all 

 instances exhaustively dealt with ; and it has been one of my objects to endeavour to fix on a 

 firm basis the nomenclature of all the birds known to possess a Philippine origin. 



The literature of the subject practically commenced with Brisson §, who in his well known 

 Tr.Z.S.ix. work published original descriptions of many species said to have been obtained in the Philip- 

 P" ■^""' pines. Most of these are true Philippine species ; but several of them were obtained in other 

 parts of the world, and have no claim to a Philippine habitat. 



The next, and certainly the most important, writer was the French traveller Sonnerat. He 

 described and figured sixty-five species as having been obtained by him when in the Philippines ; 

 but recent researches tend to prove that only thirty are inhabitants of that archipelago. Several 



* Cf. Ibis, 1872, p. 03 [aniea, p. 114]. 



t I restrict the term Philippines to that group of islands -n-bich is separated from Northern Borneo by the Balabac 

 Strait and the Sea of ilindoro, exclusive of the Sooloo archipelago, and from Celebes by the Sea of Celebes. It may be 

 necessary when the fauna of the Sooloo archipelago is better known, to include it also within the Philippine area ; but, ou 

 the other hand, when the fauna of the island of Palawan has been investigated, that may have to be separated from the 

 Philippine area. The positions both of Palawan and of the Sooloo Islands (at present aU but zoological blanks) are of the 

 highest geographical interest ; for Palawan, stretching out for 260 miles, unites the northernmost point of Borneo to Luzon 

 throu°-h the Calamines, while the island of Mindoro and the islands of the Sooloo archipelago form a succession of connect- 

 in'' links between Mindanao and the most north-east point of Borneo. 



X Journ. f. Orn. 1S66, pp. S-31. 



§ No titles were founded on the Jesuit Camel's well known paper, "De Avibus Philippensibus." The following is a 

 list of the principal authors who have written on Philippine ornithology :— 



Bkissou, M. J. Oruithologia (1760). 



SoKNERAT. Toy. ii la NouveUe Guinee (1776). 



TiGOES. P.Z.S. 1831. 



V. KiTTLiTZ. Momoires presentcs a I'Acad. Imp. Sc. de St. Petersb. vol. ii. (1833). Kupfertafeln z. Naturgcsch. d. 

 Togel (1832-33). Liitke, Yoy. autour du ilonde (Postcls), vol. iii. (1836). 



J. P. ilEYEN. Nov. Act. Acad. C. L. C. Nat. Cur. vol. xvi. suppl. prim. (1834). 



ExDOTJX et SouLEYET. Yoy. autour du ilonde sur la Bonite. Zoologie, vol. i. (1841). 



Peale. Zool. Un. St. Expl. Exped. 1st edition (1S48). 



Jacquikot ct PucHEEAif. Yoy. an Pole Sud sur I'Astrolahe et la Zek'e. Zoologie, vol. iii (1853). 



Cassdj. Tnit. St. Expl. Exp. Ornith. 2nd edition (1858). 



E. v. Martens. Preussische Exped. nach Ost-Asien. Zool. (1865). Journal fiir Ornithologie (1860). 



Waidex & Latabd. Ibis, 1872, p. 03 [cuiUa, p. 114]. 



