2 Mr. R. B, Sharpe on the 



a. $ ad. Labuan, July 2, 1885. 



b. 2 ad. Sandakan, April 22, 1885. 

 [Common in Labuan, frequenting fruit-gardens. 

 Native name " Trepas."] 



Order PICARLE. 

 Fam. Trogonid^e. 



195. Harpactes whiteheads 



Harpactes whiteheadi, Sharpe, Ibis, 1888, p. 395, pi. xii. 

 a,b. 6 2 ad. Kina Balu, March 19-24, 1888. 



c. 8 ad. Kina Balu, April 2, 1888. 



[This beautiful Trogon was met with on my second expe- 

 dition, at 4000 feet, where it frequented the dark and wet 

 patches of old forest. These birds generally sit in the higher 

 branches of the lower forest trees, and seldom move, except 

 to take short flights from perch to perch. They generally 

 keep their dull-coloured backs to the hunter, thus rendering 

 themselves more like a bunch of dead leaves, for which they 

 may often be mistaken. The plumage is so soft that if the 

 birds fall from any height they are spoilt as specimens, 

 bunches of feathers coming out of these soft " puff-balls." 



On the 4th of April, whilst I was taking shelter from the 

 rain under some palm-leaves, one of these Trogons settled 

 on a tree quite close to me ; it uttered every now and then 

 a peculiar growling note, swaying its tail backwards and 

 forwards, spreading out the feathers with each movement, 

 and every now and then making a short flight to capture 

 some insect, and settling on another perch. 



The young birds in nestling-plumage are similar to the 

 female, but there is little or no distinction in colour between 

 the throat, breast, and the rest of the lower parts. The pen- 

 cilling of the wing-coverts is not nearly so fine, the yellow and 

 black stripes being broader. The colour of the back is not so 

 bright, being mixed with greyish down. I have a young male, 

 in which the crimson feathers of the back and breast are mixed 

 with the brown nestling-plumage. The soft parts are as 

 figured in 'The Ibis' (/. c), having been taken from my 

 sketches made from the freshly killed bird. 



