532 Mr. W. R. Ogilvie Grant on the 



6. Oriolus chinbnsis, Linn. ; Grant, Ibis, 1896, p. 111. 

 Adult and immature females of the Chinese Oriole are 



perfectly similar to those sent by Mr. Whitehead in previous 

 collections. 



7. Oriolus steerii, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iii. p. 213 

 (1877). 



As Mr. Whitehead's collection contains a nice series of 

 Steere's Oriole, I shall take this opportunity of making some 

 remarks on this and the allied species : — 



The Masbate and Negros birds have been named O. nigro- 



striatus by Messrs. Bourns and Worcester, and are said to 



differ from O. steerii in having '^ the lores, chin, throat, and 



upper breast decidedly darker ashy, and the mesial stripes of 



feathers of breast and abdomen broader and much deeper 



black, the general colour of wing darker, and the washing 



on the inner webs of quills white instead of yellow.'' They 



are, however, mistaken in supposing that the type of 0. steerii 



comes from Basilan. It is quite true that Dr. Sharpe 



mentions Basilan as well as Negros as the habitat of his 



O. steerii, and that, as Messrs. Bourns and Worcester have 



shown, the Negros and Basilan birds belong to perfectly 



different species ; but a glance at the original description and 



figure (c/. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iii. p. 213, pi. x., 1877) is 



sufficient to show that the Negros bird is the one described, 



and therefore the type of 0. steerii. Dr. Sharpe states that 



in O. steerii the under wing-coverts are grey like the breast, 



the outermost ones with olivaceous edgings ; the ear-coverts 



dull yellowish olive; the body below the grey breast white, 



very broadly streaked with black ; and the outer tail-feathers 



black, with a large spot of yellow near the tip of the inner 



web. These combined characters can apply only to the Negros 



bird. Under these circumstances 0. nigrostriatus becomes a 



synonym of O. steerii, and I am obliged to give the Basilan 



bird the new name basilanicus. 



■-~f~~' Although Lord Tweeddale included the specimens collected 



by Mr. Everett in Basilan with O. steerii from Negros, he 



expressed the opinion (see P. Z. S. 1877, p. 757) that "the 



