Cypselidse, Caprimulgidgej and Podargidse. 369 



my subspecies C. brevirostris, inadvertently took for compa- 

 rison with the latter skins from the Indian Peninsula only, 

 which I considered to be the same as those from the Islands. 

 Unfortunately I had overlooked the fact that the tarsus is 

 nearly always thinly feathered in insular examples of C.fuci- 

 phttffa, while the Nilghiri birds have invariably quite unfea- 

 thcred tarsi. It becomes, therefore, necessary to recognize 

 the Indian C. unicolor as a subspecies, though I am not pre- 

 pared to call it a species, as the feathers on the tarsi cannot, 

 in some cases, be found in insular examples of C. fuciphaga — 

 for example, in some Celebes skins, — and as the differences 

 in colour are slight, and sometimes birds from the Islands 

 cannot with certainty be distinguished by their colour from 

 Nilghiri specimens. It is, of course, not impossible that the 

 Celebes birds or others may be separated as subspecies at 

 a future time, with the help of much good fresh material, 

 but, from all I have seen, I cannot at present find characters 

 for a new subspecies. However, though I admit fully the 

 correctness of Mr. Grant's observations, I see no reason for 

 his not allowing as a subspecies C brevirostris from the 

 Himalayas, which has (as Mr. Grant admits) a constantly 

 longer wing and a somewhat paler rump. I would conse- 

 quently now arrange the group of Collocalia, without white 

 on the abdomen and without a distinct whitish rump-band, 

 as follows : — 1. C. ivhiteheadi, Grant; 2. C. loivi (Sharpe) ; 

 3. C. fuciphaga (Islands), with its subspecies C. f. unicolor 

 (Indian Peninsula and Ceylon) and C.f. brevirostris (Hima- 

 layas) . 



A very unfortunate mistake has been made on p. 434 of 

 vol. xvi. of the Cat. B., where a synopsis of families (by the 

 Editor) is given, which reads as follows : — 



a. Palate segithognathous : Cypselid(B. 



b. Palate schizognathous : Caprimulgidcp.. 



c. Palate desmognathous : Steatortiithidce, &c. 



Now the palate has never, as yet, been found to be schizo- 

 gnathous in any member of the family Caprimulgidse ! I 

 cannot, for certain, say where the mistake originated, but 

 I find it made by Seebohm, and by Sharpe ('Review of 



