1875.] THE PHILIPPINE AECHIPELAGO. 341 



Graucaliis lagiinensis, Bp. Compt. Rend. vol. xxxviii. p. 540, d adult, " lus. Philipp." (March 

 20, 1854); Notes Orn. Coll. Delattre, p. 77 ; Hartl. J. f. O. 1864, p. 445, c? , ? , "Philippines." 

 Grancahis dnssumieri. Lesson, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1861, p. 96; Gray, Hand-list, no. 5070. 

 Graacalus lagnneiisis, Bp., Blyth, /. c. ; Gray, op. cit. no. 5080. 

 Corvus pajiuensis, apud v. Kittlitz, Liitkc, Voy. (Postels) iii. p. 326, nee Gm. 



JIah. Luzon, January, April ; Negros, March {Meyer) ; Mindanao (Jacquinot). 



Dr. Meyer obtained six examples of this handsome Graucaliis, representing three distinct 

 phases of plumage. Two have, with the exception of the upper tail-coverts and lower feathers 

 on the rump, the whole plumage of a dark plumbeous grey, the lores being jet-black. The 

 lower plumage is somewhat paler than the upper, more especially that of the ventral region. 

 A few of the upper tail-coverts and rump-feathers are fringed with pale grey. This is the fully 

 adult male plumage* {G. lagunensis, Bj).). 



A third example has the head, neck, back, and breast dark plumbeous grey ; but the rest of -pr. z. s. ix. 

 the under plumage, with the under tail-coverts and the rump and upper tail-coverts, has two or P- ^'''J- 

 more broad, almost pure white, transverse bands on each feather. The black lores are faintly 

 indicated by a darker shade of plumbeous. This is the phase described by Lesson {I. c), and 

 represented in the eighth plate of the ' Voyage de I'Astrolabe.' It is also the phase figured by 

 D'Aubenton, only tliat in the ' Planches Enlumiuees ' the lores are exhibited as black. Two 

 other examples differ : — one in the black and white feathers extending higher up on the breast, 

 and being more numerous on the rump ; the other in their becoming less distinct — that is, 

 passing into the fully adult phase. 



The Negros example ( 6 fide Meyer) has the whole of the under plumage, from the chin, 

 barred transversely white and black ; and the black and white feathers on the uropygium extend 

 to the middle of the back. This individual, I believe, represents the youngest of the three 

 phases of plumage. It has not hitherto been described or figured. The dimensions of all six 

 examples nearly agree. 



D'Aubenton's plate, no. 629, first made this species known to science. The individual there 

 figured was brought to Paris by Sonnerat {teste Month, torn. cit. p. 82). With it Sonnerat also 

 brought the individual represented by D'Aubenton on plate 630, and on which Gmelin founded 

 his Corvm papuensis. Unfortunately Montbeillard did not state the localities where Sonnerat 

 procured either of the two species. The one, however, figured on the 630th plate is undoubtedly 

 an exclusively Papuan form ; and being so, we can with much certainty infer that it was obtained 

 by Sonnerat from some part of the Papuan subregion during his only visit to the Papuan Islands, 

 namely in the year 1772. The expedition which Sonnerat accompanied when he visited those 

 islands, and which had left the Isle of France on the 29th of June, 1771, had previously, from 

 the beginning of September 1771 to the beginning of February 1772, explored the Philippine 

 Islands ; and Sonnerat seems to have never again travelled in the Philippine archipelago. He 



* It may also be that of the adult female, it being an unascertained fact whether in both sexes of the large Cuckoo- 

 Shrikes the adult plumage is tho same. One of the two above described is labelled by Dr. Meyer " a male," and the other 

 " a female ; " but I am not quite sure that implicit confidence cuJi be placed in the sexual determinations indicated ou 

 Dr. Meyer's labels. 



2 Y 



