1886. } MR. R. B. SHARPE ON BIRDS FROM PERAK. 351 
to be regretted that Mr. Davison was never able, through political 
obstacles, to reach the mountains on the eastern side of the peninsula 
and explore the high ridge or ‘‘ backbone ”’ which runs down its 
entire length. Considerable speculation has been excited respecting 
the fauna of these Malayan mountains, because all the collections 
hitherto made in Malacca have proved that, as regards the birds, 
there are very few species which are not common to Borneo, Sumatra, 
and the Malayan peninsula. Sumatra, however, has always enjoyed 
a certain distinction from possessing at least one genus, Psilopogon, 
peculiar to itself; and, again, in the mountains several Himalayan 
genera have been found with species identical with, or only slightly 
differing from, those which occur in the Eastern Himalayas and 
extend down the mountains of Tenasserim. Many Malayan species 
range into the southern portions of the last-named province; but 
as Tegards the Himalayan genera, such as Niltava, Liothrix, 
Pnoepyga, Sibia, &c., all traces of them are lost after leaving 
Tenasserim until they turn up again in Sumatra. 
Many prognostications have been made that when the mountains 
of the Malayan peninsula were explored, the above-named genera 
and many others common to the mountains of Tenasserim and 
Sumatra would be found to extend along the eastern side of Malacca ; 
but of this the first actual proof has been furnished by Mr. L. Wray, 
who has sent a small parcel of birds from the mountains of Perak to 
the British Museum. Although so few in number, the revelations 
which they disclose are of the greatest value, for they show that in 
Perak, at least, and probably throughout the mountain-range, there 
is a curious mixture of Himalayan and high-Sumatran forms. 
Thus the Psilopogon, hitherto supposed to be a peculiar Sumatran 
genus, is accompanied by Rhinocichla mitrata (Ianthocincla mitrata, 
auct.), another species hitherto believed to be confined to Sumatra ; 
and the Siéia is also the Sumatran S. simillima, and not S. picata. 
The affinities of the Perak species being therefore so markedly 
Sumatran, it is not a little surprising to find that the Jesia is 
MW. argentauris of the Himalayas, and not M. laurine of Sumatra 
as one would have expected. 
The following is a list of the specimens sent by Mr. Wray, who 
informs us that they were mostly obtained at an elevation of 3000 
feet, and that his native collector, after an experience of 30 years’ 
work, had not met with some of the species before. 
Fam. Muscicarip&. 
Nixrava GRANpIs, Hodgs.; Sharpe, Cat. B. iv. p. 404. 
“No. 11. Male. Irides red; legs and feet nearly black ; beak black. 
The female is brown, with a blue spot on each shoulder and a patch 
of ash under neck; head blackish and slightly glossed with blue. 
Specimens obtained at 4000 feet.” 
Compared with males from Sikhim and Tenasserim in the Hume 
Collection, and apparently identical in every respect. 
