014 THE MARdUIS OF TWEEDDALE ON [May 21, 



representative form 1 . That three birds, one inhabiting Java, another 

 Borneo, the Malay peninsula, and Sumatra, and the third Palawan, 

 all so closely resembling each other in their colouring and markings 

 that they are difficult to recognize without careful comparison of 

 their shades and tints, should possess nostrils structurally differing 

 in all three is remarkable ; but is it a sufficient reason to place them 

 in three different genera? I can only regard the character as 

 being specific. 



The plumage of the sexes is alike. The amount of dark chestnut 

 on the middle pairs of rectrices varies considerably, from three inches 

 to one inch in depth. 



9. Centrococcyx eurycerctjs. 



Centropus eurycercus, A. Hay, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1845, p. 551. 



[P. Princesa, S, January 8, 1878: iris bright crimson; bill, 

 legs, and feet black. <$ (juv.), December 9, 1877 : iris neutral 

 tint ; bill and legs jet-black.] 



Rather smaller than the Malaccan type. 



10. Lanius luzionensis (72). 



[P. Princesa, 6* ?, December 6 and 11, 1877.] 



11. Graucaltjs sumatrensis. 



Ceblepyris sumatrensis, S. Miiller, Verb. Land- en Volkenk. p. 191. 

 [P. Princesa, $, December 1877: iris light lemon-yellow.] 

 Does not differ from Sumatran, Malaccan, and Bornean examples. 



12. DlCRURUS PALAWANENSIS. 



In the* Philippines three species of Dicruridae are known : — 

 D. bulicassius, type of the genus Dicrurus ; D. mirabilis, its repre- 

 sentative form ; and D. striatus. This last, by its even, almost 

 uufurcated tail, resembles D. balicassius in structure, but in its 

 general colouring and in the distribution of its markings exhibits a 

 close relationship to the Papuan and Malaccan species associated by 

 Mr. Sharpe with Chibia hottentotta. These Papuan species seemed 

 to me to belong to a group distinct from that represented by D. bali- 

 cassius on the one hand and Chibia hottentotta on the other ; and 

 their geographical range favoured this view 2 . But Mr. Everett has 

 discovered in Palawan a species which undoubtedly belongs to the 

 Papuan section of the Dicruridse ; and it would appear that, with 

 D. striatus as a connecting link, the Papuan and the Philippine 

 species must be regarded as members of one section of the family, to 

 which the title of Dicrurus should be applied. Besides this unde- 

 scribed species, Palawan is inhabited by at least one other member 

 of the family, belonging to the genus Buchanya ; and Palawan and 

 Lombock are the only two islands or areas known to me where there 

 is a second species associated with a true species of Dicrurus, unless, 



1 The type was from Balabac ; but the Palawan bird does not appear to differ, 



2 Count T. Salvadori has recently (antch, p. 88, note) proposed the grenerie 

 title of Dicruroptis for this group. 



