122 THE BIRDS OF THE WESTERN HALF 



There are a few species in regard to which I desire to make 

 a few remarks. 



57 bia. — Pernis brachypterus, Bly. 



It is now to my mind quite certain that we have in the 

 Malay Peninsula a species of Honey Buzzard quite distinct 

 from ptilorhynchus. It is quite possible that this may be 

 Pernis celebensis, with which it agrees in having the entire 

 •wing lining and axillaries strongly and broadly, transversely, 

 barred, but it agrees neither with SchlegeFs figure " Valk Vogel," 

 pi. 26, fig. 4, nor Mr. Sharpens description, Cat. B. M., I., p. 34y, 

 and would rather seem to be referable to the same species as 

 the fourth Sumatran example referred to by Mr. Gurney, Ibis, 

 1880, p. 213. 



I have now two specimens, the one apparently a male, wing, 

 14*75; the other a supposed female, wing, 16*1. Both are of 

 precisely the same type, and both unmistakably distinct from 

 any Indian or Malayan specimen of ptilorhynchus that I have 

 ever examined. 



I have never seen celebensis. I cannot find out what Blyth's 

 brachypterus really was. Our present birds may not be refer- 

 able to either of these species, or supposed species, but I am 

 absolutely certain that they are not ptilorhynchus. 



The male I take to be the youuger bird of the two. It has 

 the entire forehead, crown, occiput, nape and full broad crest 

 (nearly 3 inches in length), the sides of the head, including 

 the cheeks, ear-coverts, and sides of the neck, almost black ; 

 a few of the feathers of the forehead, of the hind head, and 

 the crest, are very narrowly margined with sordid white, as 

 are most of the blackish brown feathers of the hind neck ; 

 the entire chin and throat pure white ; a good many of the 

 feathers, however, faintly washed with creamy towards the tips ; 

 a very few of the feathers, with parts of the shaft, black, and 

 three feathers, one above the other, just at the base of the centre 

 of the throat with conspicuous black shaft stripes, as if the last 

 remains of a central throat stripe ; the entire breast and upper 

 abdomen mingled white (with, in many places, a creamy tinge) 

 and blackish brown ; in the upper part of the breast the brown is 

 confined to a shaft stripe, say 0"2 in width ; lower down this has 

 expanded into a diamond-shaped shaft stripe, nearly half an 

 inch wide at the broadest part, and lower down still it has 

 expanded still more so as to cover the greater portion of the 

 feather, but is now cut into by deep opposite festoons showing 

 how the change from the longitudinal to the transverse 

 markings takes place; the lower abdomen, flanks, vent, and 

 lower tail coverts dark brown, regularly and conspicuously 



