214 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums. [Vol. X, 



XL NOTES ON SOME ORIENTAL B?RDS. 



By C. Boden Kloss, m.h.o.u., c.f.a.o.u. 



HALCYON (SAUROPATIS) CHLORIS. 



Either together or separately Mr. H. C. Robinson and 

 1 have hitherto not seen our way to accept all the races oi' 

 Malajsian Blue-and-white Kingfishers that Dr. H. C. 

 Oberholser recognises and proposes (Proc. U. S, Nat. Mus. 

 55, 1919, pp. 351 395). But now with about 80 specimens 

 from Bangkok, south through the Malay P^ninsida to 

 Johore ; 8 from North-east Sumatra ; 16 from Benkoolen, 

 the Padang districts and Korinchi, West Sumatra (C. 

 cyanescens Oberh.) ; and 18 from all parts of Java (C 

 palmeri Oberh.) I have to revise my opinions somewhat.^ 



I cannot perceive all the differential characters 

 Oberholser gives in his key and diagnoses : however, in the 

 large series of continental birds I find a few males — a 

 distinct minority- — that are a deeper, less greenish, blue than 

 the others and these make the series as a whole look more 

 blue ; as stated, there is frequently a pronounced wash of 

 buff on the flanks which the others lack : the continental 

 birds are certainly smaller : and so are eight specimens from 

 the Deli district of North-east Sumatra, which on this 

 account I should rank with them, though Oberholser says 

 that F2ast Sumatran birds as far north as Deli are 

 (tyanescens. The wings of my continental birds range 

 from 97 'to 106 mm. ; those of the Deli examples from 96 

 to 104 mm. : and those of the West Sumatra specimens from 

 104 to 112 mm. 



Oberholser considers that bii-ds from the Sunderbunds 

 to Singapore are all armstrongi (type, a Siamese skin of 

 Gould's collection), and that birds called luimii by Sharpe 

 (type, a Selangor bird of Hume's collection) are insepai-- 

 able : but I find, on the contrary, that the great majority 

 of birds from the Malay Peninsula have the earcoverts morl' 

 blackish, or of a darker different bhie, than the birds of the 

 Inner Gulf of Siam which have the earcoverts of the same 

 blue as the crown though sometimes a trifle darker in tint ; 

 and on this ground, and because of a deeper huffy wash on 

 the flanks and of a pronounced black nuchal band in most 

 of the specimens (obsolete or absent in the Siamese birds) 

 hiimii may be maintained for birds of the Peninsula, south 

 of the Isthmus of Kra and for those of North-east Sumatra. 

 There seems to be no difference in size : the wings of the 

 24 more Northern birds (armstrongi) range from 98 to 

 106 mm. ; those of the Peninsular series from^97 to 106 mm. 

 and those of the Sumatran set of Inimii from 96 to 104 mm. 



Sauropatis clitoris cyanescens Oberh. (op. cit. 52, 1917 

 p. 189 : type from Pulau 1 aya. Southern China Sea, north 



' 1 am indebted to Mr. W. .1. F. Williamson, c.m.g., for the loan 

 of 24 examples from the head of the Gulf of Siam ; to Heer E. 

 Jacobson for a dozen from West Sumatra and to Heer. A. G F. A, 

 van Heyst for examples from North-east Sumatra. 



