350 ON THE BIRDS INHABITING [1875. 



Hirundo alj)esfn's, Pallas, Eeisen Russischen Reichs, ii. p. 709, no. 19, "Altai and Siberian 

 Alps" (1773); Zoogr. Rosso-Asiatica, i. p. 534, pi. xxx. ; Kittlitz, Liitke, Voy. (Postels) iii. 

 p. 327. 



Ilab. Manilla (Kittlitz). 



Brandt (l. c.) thus identified a Swallow brought from Manilla by Kittlitz. It probably 

 belongs to the race designated Hirundo striolata, Temm., ex Java, in the 'Fauna Japonica,' and 

 which is said to frequent the islands of the Malay archipelago [cf. Swinh. P. Z. S. 1871, p. 346). 



Dr. V. Martens mentions having observed a Swallow with the uropygium of a pale isabelline 

 colour f, very common about and in the houses of Baiios. With doubt he identified it with 

 //. daurica (Preus. Exp. O. -Asian, Zool. i. p. 188). 



ORIOLID^. 



Brodeeipus, Bonaparte. 



90. * BrODERIPUS ACRORHrNCHUS. 



Oriolus acrorhynckus, Vigors, P. Z. S. 1831, p. 97, "neighbourhood of Manilla;" Gray & 

 Mitch. Gen. Birds, pi. 58; Walden & Layard, Ibis, 1872, p. 101$. 



Hah. Zebu, Negros, Guimaras, Luzon. Bill pink, rose-coloured ; feet and claws blue-grey ; 

 Luzon examples {Meyer). 



A large series of individuals obtained by Dr. Meyer illustrates the varying relative proportion 

 of yellow and black on the head in difi"erent examples of this fine Oriole. In a Luzon female, 

 immature, middle rectrices tinged with green, the enclosed yellow frontal space extends back 

 fully for ^ of an inch from the base of the culmen. In a perfectly adult Guimaras male with 

 jet-black middle rectrices and quills, and rich orange-golden dorsal plumage, the forehead only 

 is yellow, that colour occupying a depth of only f of an inch. This example, in the distribution 

 and proportions of its black and yellow plumage, is almost absolutely identical with a Sula-Island 

 specimen of B. frontalis (Wallace). The Sula example, however, has the middle pair of rectrices 

 entirely black, whereas all the Philippine examples have those feathers more or less tipped with 

 yellow. Moreover the Philippine is a much larger bird, with a longer wing and bill. The 

 extent of yellow at the termination of the middle pair of rectrices varies very considerably. In 

 Tr. Z. S. ix. a Negros male in full golden-orange plumage the tips of the middle pair are but barely fringed 

 ^' ■ with yellow. In a Luzon male in similar dress the two middle rectrices have a yellow terminal 

 band nearly half an inch in depth. 



The tendency in this species seems to be for the entire head to become black as in 

 0. melanocephahis and its allies. In an immature Luzon male {Jide Meyer), with dingy 

 greenish-yellow plumage and streaked breast, the feathers of the nape, occiput, and lores are 

 dingy greenish yellow with greenish black, those of the forehead being dingy golden. Now in 

 the adult these nuchal, occipital, and loral feathers become jet-black at their tips, those on the 

 neck being ashy or greenish ashy at their roots, but those on the occiput being bright yellow at 

 their insertions. The direction of variation in this species may therefore be said to be towards 



t In the later List (J. f. 0. 1866) this colour is described as being isabelline yeUow. J [Antea, p. 119. — Ed.] 



