I9I5-] 



H. C. Robinson : Species of Minivets. 



35 



Dimensions. — Adult male — Total length, 6,7; wing, 3.15; 

 tail 3.9 in. 

 Adult female — Total length, 6.7; wing, 3.1; 

 tail, 3.8 in. 



Localities in the Peninsula. Perak : Larut Hills, 3 — 4,000' 

 (October) ; Gunong Kerbau, 5,000' (March) ; Telom, Perak 

 Pahapg Boundary 3 — ^4,000' (September, November, Decem- 

 ber). . Pahang: Gunong Tahaii, 5,000' (July). Selangor: 

 Bukit Fraser, 4,000' (October) : Semangko Pass, Selangor, 

 Pahang border (F'ebruary, March, November) Gunong Meng- 

 kuang Lebah, 5,000' (January, March) ; Gunong Menuang 

 Gasing, Ulu Langat, 4,000' (May). Elsewhere common in the 

 high mountains of Borneo and Sumatra. 



Notes. — As the synonymy shows this species which is fairly 

 wide, ranging over elevated land in the Malayan region, has 

 received numerous names, partly owing to the fact that the 

 colour of the throat in the male is very variable, ranging from 

 a light grey to an almost glossy black, while the immature 

 birds of both sexes differ from the adult female. 



The large series before me, which includes topotypes of 

 Salvadori's P. inontanns, comprises specimens which can be 

 referred to all the nominal species from one and the same 

 locality and all, therefore, have to be included under Salva- 

 dori's as the earliest name, as has already been pointed out by 

 Hartert. Judging from the dates of immature skins in the 

 Museum the species probably begins to breed in the Peninsula 

 about December or January. 



Pericrocotus xanthogaster, subsp. flammifer. 

 Davison's Minivet. 



Pericrocotus flammifer, Hume, Stray Feath. iii, p. 321 

 (1875) ; id op. cit. V, pp. 175, 195 (1877) ; Hume & Davison, 

 op. cit. vi, p. 211 ; SJiarpe, Cat. Birds Brit.Mns. iv, p. 74 (1879) ; 

 dates. Faun. Brit. Ind. Birds, i, p. 477 (i88g) ; Ogilvie Grant, 

 Fascic. Malay. Zool. iii, p. 91 (1905) ; Robinson, Journ. Fed. 

 Malay States Mus. ii, p. 192 (1908) Robinson & Kloss, Ibis, 1911, 

 P- 54- 



Pericrocotus speciosus fraterculus {nee. Swinhoe), Butler, 

 Journ. Straits Branch Royal. Asiat. Soc. No. 32, p. 17 (1899) ; 

 Hartert, Nov. Zool. ix, p. 555 (1902). 



Adult male. — Head all round, nape, mantle, throat, outer 

 and lesser wing coverts glossy black. Inner webs of central 

 pair of tail feathers and bases of the remainder, black, the 

 black lessening towards the outer pairs. Primaries, secondaries 

 and tertials black, with an oblique bar of crimson scarlet on 

 the primaries, beginning on the outer web of the fourth 

 primary; secondaries and all but the innermost tertials with 

 their basal halves scarlet ; the inner tertials with isolated 

 drops of scarlet on their outer webs ; inner primary coverts 



