from the Andaman Islands. 303 



described from Java by Thunberg under the title of Hirundo 

 fuciphaga. Collocalia innomiuata, Hume, Str. Feath. i. 

 p. 291, "Port Blair/' as described, agrees well with Sikim 

 and Malaccan examples of so-called C. fuciphaya (Thunb.), and 

 named brevirostris by McClelland (P. Z.S. 1839, p. 155), 

 the type specimen of which was identified as being that of a 

 Collocalia by Mr. Moore. 



16. Eudynamis malayana, Cab. Mus. Hein. iv. p. 52, " Su- 

 matra" (1862-63). 



Eudynamis honor at a* (Linn.), Ball, Str. Feath. i. p. 63, 

 no. 38 " Andamans." 



"S. Andaman: S , iris red, bill greenish white, legs slate- 

 blue ; 2 , iris lake. Ross Island, <$ ." 



* Written horonata at page 173, by Mr. Hume (a quaint blunder), with 

 the suggestion that I had written honorata through a " clerical oversight." 

 The Calcutta printers, in this instance at least, are not responsible ; for 

 they have been made to reproduce, not correct, the palpable misprint in 

 the 'Hand-list,' No. 9068. Surely, if there is not a copy of a Linnams, 

 or even of a Gmelin or a Latham, in any Calcutta library, there must be 

 a Latin dictionary accessible. For the reason why Linnaeus entitled the 

 species Cucidus honoratus, cf. Walden, Ibis, 18G9, p. 327 ; in addition to 

 which I may quote Gmelin, i. p. 413. no. 7, " Cuculus honoratus. Habitat 

 in Malabaria, reptilibus victitans, hinc forte incolis sacratns," which is only 

 a repetition of Latham's remarks, Sacred Cuckoo, C. honoratus, L. (Syn. i. 

 p. 520), " Inhabits Malabar, where the natives hold it sacred. It feeds on 

 reptiles, which, perhaps, may be such as are the most noisome ; if so, this 

 seeming superstition may have arisen from a more reasonable foundation 

 than many others of the like sort." This is an indifferent rendering of 

 Montbeillard's observations on the " CuiV (Hist. Nat. Ois. vi. p. 370), " II 

 est en veneration sur la cote de Malabar, sans doute parce qu'il se nourrit 

 d'insectes nuisibles. La superstition en general est toujours une erreur, 

 mais les superstitions particulieres ont quelquefois un fondement raison- 

 able." We have here an interesting illustration of the crescendo growth of 

 a fallacy. Brisson simply stated that the Koel was held in veneration 

 by the natives of Malabar, a story Linnasus perpetuated by the title he 

 bestowed. Montbeillard not only repeated the statement, but added as 

 a reason, that it was because the Koel destroyed noisome insects. Latham 

 improved on the insects and raised them to the rank of reptiles — a view 

 Gmelin adopted ; while Stephens, under Cuculus honoratus, Linn. (Gen. 

 Zool. ix. pt. 1, p. 104), as a climax, credited the bird with killing both 

 noxious reptiles and insects. 



