Mr. R. Swinhoe on the Ornithology of Hainan. 233 



may safely infer that the large-billed race resides permanently 

 in Hainan, as I procured a fledged young one early in February, 

 which was being tendered by its fosterparents [Acridotheres 

 philippe7isis) , which, were feeding it ; but from the higher branches 

 of the same tree, I put out and shot a female Koel : whether she 

 was in any way connected with the young bird it is impossible 

 to say. The egg that produced so old a chick must have been 

 laid in the beginning of January. The fledgling was not in the 

 normally immature or female plumage, but in the white-spotted 

 black dress which I had hitherto taken to be the halfway to ma- 

 turity of the male, having before received a similarly coloured 

 full-grown specimen from Swatow. An examination of males 

 with immature feathers about them shows that as a rule they, 

 in the young state, resemble the female, and moult at once into 

 the black plumage. What, then, means this melanoid plumage 

 that some young males begin life with ? 



The full-grown melanoid bird from Swatow has the upper 

 parts and breast deep bronzed-black, with many white spots on 

 the forehead, and a few on the back of the neck and on the 

 back, and broad white tips to the scapulars, coverts, and quills ; 

 tail with numerous rufescent bars towards the tip of the rectrices ; 

 rump and tail-coverts browner, with many rufescent bars ; 

 belly and under wing less bronzed, with abundant bars of 

 white. 



The Hainan fledgling is blacker still than the Swatow bird, 

 with only a few light yellowish-brown spots on the scapulars 

 and wings, and a very few spots and bars on the under parts. 

 The bills of both are blackish, that of the Swatow bird light 

 on the under mandible. 



That both the large-billed race of Hainan and the smaller- 

 billed bird of South China should have this occasional mela- 

 noid plumage in the young male shows a close consanguinity 

 between the two, and confirms me in my belief that they can- 

 not be regarded as more than races of the same species. From 

 Lord Walden^s paper above cited, we learn that the oldest name 

 for the South-China Koel is E. maculatus (Gmel.) = J5J. chinensis, 

 Cab. & Heine. 



In the ' Kiung-shan-Heen Che,^ the Koel is called the Koo-go, 



