NOTES OX BIRDS NEW TO, OK RARE IN, THE MALAY 



PENINSULA. 



(Third Series.) 



By n. C. KOBINSOX, c.m.z.s., m.b.o i". 



'H'^HE present notes continue tliose publislied in tin's jduiiial. vol. 



lY, pp. I29-l:-)3 and pp. 229-28.3, and I'elate to species obtained 



in the ordinary course of collecting during the last eighteen months 



in the Federated Malay States and the adjacent ])ortions of the 



Mala}- Peninsula. 



CALOPERDIX OCULEA (Temm.) 



Caloperdix oculea (Temm.) ; Ogilvie Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., 

 x.vii., p. 222 (1893) ; Robinson and Kloss, Ibis, 1910, p. 671. 



This handsome Jungle-Partridge, which is exti-emel}' rare in 

 collections, was found to be by no means uncommon in swampy 

 jungle at the foot of precipitous limestone hills near Pelarit in 

 Perils, a sm.all state in the north of the Peninsula, bordering on 

 Kedah. Our collectoi's secured numerous specimens and also 

 obsei'ved tliat it was kept in captivity by the local Malays Avho fed it 

 on termites or white ants. Caged specimens, however, Avere said not 

 to be long-lived. 



A single male was aLso siiot in Februaiy, 1912, at the lieight of 

 3,000 feet on Menang Gasing, a mountain in the main range of the 

 Peninsula near the junction of the boundaries of the thi-ee states, 

 Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Pahang. 



As noted elsewhere, the locality '"Malacca'" for foui- specimens 

 in the British Museum is open to grave suspicion, the skins having 

 most probably been obtained by Malacca bii'd-hunters fi-om some 

 district in the north of the Peninsula. 



Males differ from the females in the slightly larger size, most 

 noticeable in the bill, and in the presence of a blunt tarsal spur oi- 

 knob, Avhicli is sometimes reduplicated. Less adult specimens have 

 the V-shaped black mai-kings on the flanks encroaching on the centre 

 of the breast. 



ARBORICOLA CHARLTOM (Eyto.n). 



Ai'boricola chai-ltoni (Eyton) ; Ogilvie Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. 

 Mus., xxii., p. 221 (1893). 



A single female specimen was obtained at Pelarit, Perlis, in 

 Novembei-, 1911. Throughout the Malay Peninsula this partiidge is 

 a very x-ai-e bird though common in the vicinity of Lenggong in L'pper 

 Pei-ak, but in the tiist few months of 1912 it suddenly appeared 

 in considerable immbers on the lower slopes of the Larut Hills, 

 in the vicinity of Taiping, Perak. Large numbers were snared 

 by the Malays and several are now in the gardens of the Zoological 

 Society. London. 



