Birds of the Philippine Islands. 213 



4. Pernis cristatus, Cuv. ; Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind., 

 Birds, iii. p. 406 (1895). 



Pernis ptilonorhynchus, Grant, Ibis, 1894, p. 503 ; 1895, 

 pp. 108, 251. 



The proper name for the Honey-Buzzard found in the 

 Philippines is comparatively a matter of secondary im- 

 portance. As Mr. Blanford has shown, cristatus of Cuvier 

 has priority over Temminck's name ptilonorhynchus, both 

 based on birds from Sumatra. But the main question 

 to be settled is this : — Are the birds from India commonly 

 called P. ptilonorhynchus really of the same species as those 

 found in Sumatra, Java, &c., and the Philippines? The 

 Samar collection contains a bird in very much more adult 

 plumage than those previously received from Luzon, and 

 though in moult, the longest crest-feather measures nearly 

 3 inches. In the young birds fi'om Luzon the crest, though 

 shorter, is well developed. 



Dr. Sharpe [cf. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. i. p. 349 (1874)] men- 

 tions that a bird from Java in the Leiden Museum has a 

 black crest 3*7 inches long. A specimen from Sumatra, in 

 the Tweeddale collection, has the longest crest-feathers 

 broken, but when complete they no doubt measured 3 

 inches or more. We have but a small number of birds from 

 these islands for comparison, and none are really mature (?) ; 

 but the British Museum series contains many fully adult 

 Honey-Buzzards from India, and a still larger number of 

 younger examples in all stages. Though the feathers on the 

 nape of adult Indian birds are somewhat lengthened and 

 pointed, and generally accentuated by their blacker colour, 

 none are conspicuously longer than the rest. Consequently 

 these birds cannot appear crested when alive. Dr. H. O. 

 Forbes, however, informs us that all the Honey-Buzzards he 

 saw and collected in Sumatra possessed a long crest, which 

 stood out conspicuously when the birds were at rest. Again, 

 in all the long-crested birds from the Philippines the chest- 

 feathers have wide black club-shaped shaft-stripes, most 

 strongly marked in older examples, in which they contrast 

 strongly with the barred plumage of the belly and flanks. 



SEH. VII. VOL. HI. Q 



