440 ON THE SPECIES OF BATEACHOSTOMUS [1877. 



announced that in the case of B. javensis the sexes differed ; for he remarks {J. c.) : — " Mas et 



fem. hifer se colore differtmt uti Scops asio differt a Sc. naevia auctorum." But his simile leads 



to the inference that he thought the rufous birds were males and the grey females. A few years 



later Prof Schlegel (J. f. Om. 1856, p. 460) propounded the general and more definite axiom 



that in all the Indian species of the genus Podargns {Batrachostomus) the males are grey, the 



females rust-coloured. At that time the Leyden Museum possessed examples of two Asiatic 



species identified by the Professor as B. jiarvulus {ex Borneo and Malacca) and B. corniitns {ex 



Java, Sumatra, and Borneo) ; and to these species must Professor Schlegel's dictum be restricted, 



doubtless founded on numerous examples with the sexes determined by the Dutch collectors. Of 



B. jiart'ultfs {—B. affinis, Blyth), ex Malacca and Borneo or Sumatra, I have not met with an 



example, in either grey or rufous plumage, of which the sexes had been determined by a 



competent collector. Yet, if B. affinis, Blyth, is but a slightly smaller form of B. castaneus, 



Hume (of which there is little doubt), and. consequently the rufous phase of Otothrix hodrjsoni, 



then there is some confirmatory evidence of Prof. Schlegel's opinion that the grey birds belong 



to the male sex. Examples of B, cornutus, ex Sumatra and Borneo, in both plumages, with the 



sexes determined, fortunately exist in England, and bear out the Professor's conclusions. In the 



British Museum is preserved an example, ex Sumatra, in grey plumage, and marked as being of 



a male by its collector, Mr. Wallace. Count Salvadori {I. c.) describes a freckled rufous 



individual from Sarawak ; and the sex, as ascertained by the collector, is stated to be female. 



Two pairs of this species, collected in Banjermassing by Motley, were examined by Mr. Sclater; 



and he observed (P. Z. S. 1863, p. 212) that " the sexes are very different in colouring, the male 



being minutely freckled with brown and black, and the female bright rufous. Horsfield's figure 



represents the female." As regards the remaining Asiatic species there is also some evidence 



P.Z.S.1877, on this point. A bright rufous example of B. moniliger, Layard, collected in Ceylon by Mr. S. 



p. 4i:3. Chapman {mus. nostr.), is marked " sex, female." A grey-brown speckled bird of the same 



species, obtained at Ratnapura, in Ceylon, is marked 6 by tlie collector, Mr. H. Nevil {miis. 



nostr.). Of two individuals belonging to the genus recently obtained in Travancore by Mr. 



Bourdillon, and referred by Mr. Hume {I. c.) to B. moniliger, Layard, one, in rufous plumage, 



said by Mr. Hume to agree with the description of the Ceylon type, is marked female by the 



collector ; the other, in grey-and-Jjrown freckled and mottled plumage, is marked a male. A 



single specimen of a new species from Mindanao, discovered by the naturalists of the ' Challenger' 



Expedition, is in rufous-brown striated plumage ; and the sex is stated on the label to be female. 



Lieut. Wardlaw Ramsay ascertained the sex of a Batrachostomus obtained by him on the Karcnnee 



hills (5000 ft. elevation) to be male ; and this individual is in grey-and-brown mottled plumage, 



hardly distinguishable from the type of Otothrix hodgsoni and from grey-and-brown mottled 



examples of B. affinis, ex Malacca. Of B. steUatus {=B. sticto])terus. Cab.) I have never seen 



examples in grey plumage. It is a common bird in Malaccan collections ; and I have examined 



a great number of individuals. It has two phases of plumage — bright rufous or rufous bay, and 



dark brown and rufous brown. Younger birds possess either of these hues, but have the upper 



plumage striated. Count Salvadori's Latin description, taken from three Sarawak individuals 



(one of which is labelled as being a male), applies to the rnfous-brown phase of dress ; for he 



says, " Siqira riifo-brunneiis." We might infer, therefore, that the bright rufous dress belongs 



