1877.] INHABITING THE INDIAN EEGION. 441 



hero again to the female ; but controverting this conchision is a Bornean example in bright 

 rufous plumage, collected by Mr. Everett (mus. nostr.), on the label of which the sex is marked 

 male. Of ten examples of the large B. auritus, ex Malacca {mus. nostr.), five are in a rufous- 

 coloured dress, and the other five are strongly tinged with grey above and below. I cannot 

 discover that the sexes corresponding to these two phases of plumage have ever been determined 

 by collectors ; but Mr. Gould {I. c.) conjectured, some thirty-four years ago, that the rufous bird 

 was the male, and the greyer bird was either the female or the young — a conjecture requiring 

 confirmatory proof. With the exception of the male symbol on Mr. Everett's Bornean rufous 

 example of B. stellatus, the little reliable evidence on record favours Professor Schlegel's 

 generalization. It must not be omitted to notice that Mr. Hume (Str. F. ii. p. 349) has distinctly 

 stated that "Mr. Hodgson's bird" (the type of Otothrix hodgsoni) " was certainly an adult female, 

 by dissection ;" but we are left without any evidence (besides Mr. Hume's statement) that this 

 assertion is well founded ; there is nothing on the label of the type specimen relating to the sex. 

 Judging from the following more recent observation of Mr. Hume (ojj. cit. iv. p. 378) — "It is 

 true that when I formerly wrote, I thought it (relying on what Hodgson recorded) probable that 

 hodgsoni was the female, and castaneus the male," — it would appear that Mr. Hodgson had 

 recorded that he had ascertained by dissection that the bird on which Gray founded his Otothrix p.z.S.1877 

 hodgsoni was a female. If this be so, the conclusion that the females of this species are always P' '^'■^'^' 

 rufous, and the males grey, is very much shaken ; and it is most desirable that Mr. Hodgson's 

 own words should be made known ; for the accuracy of zoological facts stated by Mr. Hodgson 

 may be said to be more than " probable." Of the specimens of B. crinitus, ex Gilolo and 

 Batchian, with sex determined, the females are in rufous plumage or rufous brown [B. ]isilo])terus). 

 The females of other Papuan forms of Podargus appear also to be rufous, such as P. ocellatus. 

 It may be added that the white markings on the nuchal, gular, and pectoral plumes and on the 

 scapulars and wing-coverts (where they occur) are very similar in adult birds of either sex, 

 B. moniliger in part excepted. 



There is no evidence that the young, even nestlings, of both sexes wear plumage of the same 

 colour. On the contrary, from the little that has been published on the subject, the young of 

 the species known have grey or rufous predominating from the first. 



Of the two nestlings from Darjeeling identified by Blyth as belonging to B. affinis, one is 

 described as being " mainly of a light chestnut hue, mth nearly obsolete barred markings, and 

 throwing out deeper chestnut or light-bay feathers on the crown and shoulder of the wing; while 

 the other is profusely mottled throughout with black on a pale ground, but faintly tinged with 

 chestnut" (J. A. S. B. 1849, p. 800). The nestling obtained along with the adult of Otothrix 

 hodgsoni (Mus. Brit. ) is in pale rufous barred plumage. A nestling of the Travancore bird discovered 

 by Mr. Bourdillon is described by Mr. Hume as a " little rufous-brown ball '' (Str. F. iv. p. 380). 



If it comes to be established that the adult females wear the rufous dress, and the adult 

 males the more sombre grey and brown plumage, we shall liave the fact that the females of the 

 species belonging to the genus Batrachostomus are far more brightly coloured, and therefore more 

 conspicuous than the males. The white ornamental plumes, the erect, frontal, half-developed, 

 crest-like feathers, the true occipital crests, and the long hair-like auriculars are equally prominent 

 in adults of both sexes, species by species, the white scapulars in the B.-auritus group excepted. 



