Birds of the Philippine Islands. 559 



Worcester, Occ. Pap. Minnesota Acad. Sci. i. no. i. pp. 36, 

 51 (1894). 



With the additional materials provided by the acquisition 

 of Prof. Steere's Philippine collection, and the series recently- 

 forwarded by Mr. Whitehead from the Canloon volcano in 

 Megros, we have a comparatively large series of this Barbet 

 for comparison, and I am bound to confess that the cha- 

 racters given by Capt. Shelley as distinguishing his X. inter- 

 media appear too slight to justify its separation from typical 

 X. rosea. That the Philippine birds average slightly larger 

 than those froni Java and Sumatra is true enough, but the 

 colour of the cheek-band (which appears to be his most 

 important diS'erence) varies in individuals, and we find a male 

 from Cebu with these parts almost entirely black, only the 

 faintest tinge of olive-grey being visible. Messrs. Bourns 

 and Worcester state that examples from Cebu examined by 

 them exhibit the same peculiarities, and are thus to all 

 intents and purpo^^es typical X. rosea. All our Negros birds 

 have the cheek-stripe washed with olive-grey posteriorly, 

 some more, some less ; this also agrees with the observations 

 of our American friends. According to them, specimens 

 from Tablas have the cheek-stripe washed with olive-green 

 instead of olive-grey, but Ave have not examined any birds 

 from this island. On the whole, we are not inclined to con- 

 sider the Philippine birds even subspecifically distinct from 

 X. rosea. 



67. SuRNicuLUs VELUTiNus, Sharpe; Shelley, Cat. B. Brit. 

 Mus. xix. p. 230 (1891). 



Thei'e is a male of this little Black Cuckoo, shot on the 

 12th of March. This is the first record of its occurrence 

 in Negros, though it has previously been met with in Samar, 

 Mindanao, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi Tawi. 



68. HiEuococcYx spARVERioiDEs (Vig.) ; Sliellcy, Cat. B. 

 Brit. Mus. xix. p. 332 (1891). 



As long ago as the year 1856 the large Hawk-Cuckoo was 

 recorded by Gould from the island of Luzon under the name 

 of Cuculus strenuus, for he supposed the Philippine bird to 



SER. VII. — VOL. II. 2 R 



