BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 95 



Taking all the facts of the case, I entirely agree with Mr. 

 Sharpe that no separation of the Bornean bird, simply on the 

 strength of the absence of white on the tail feathers, can be 

 accepted. Two specimens from Borneo in the Marquis of 

 Tweeddale's collection, and considered by him adults, have 

 white on the outermost pair of tail feathers, and a really 

 large series from Borneo would, doubtless, show many more such, 

 and probably some few at any rate, with spotting on the two, 

 or perhaps even the three, outermost pairs. 



AH we can predicate, as Mr. Sharpe says, is that as the bird' 

 extends northwards, so the average amount of white on the 

 tail increases. 



As far as we know this species does not extend quite as far 

 north as Amherst. Then comes a break in which no species 

 of this genus occurs ; and then on the other side of the Gulf 

 of Martaban in the Arracan Hills, straying at times into the 

 low country, is another species, affinis, in which there appears 

 to be not only invariably a white patch on all five lateral pairs, 

 but in which the white on the first three extends on to the 

 outer webs also, thus carrying- out the view that the further 

 north we get the more white is developed on the tail. 



The other differences between affinis and the present species 

 have been pointed out clearly by Mr. Oates, 8. F., III., 336. 



I note that, even admitting the distinctness of the Bornean 

 race, I am unable to agree with Count Salvadori that to it 

 should attach Gmelin's name macrorhgnclms, founded on 

 Latham's Great-billed Tody. 



Latham's type is still in the Vienna Museum, but no louger 

 possesses its own tail. 



It is impossible now to determine independently to which 

 race Latham's original Great-billed Tody pertained, because 

 he himself tells us, Gen Hist., IV., 95, that the specimen he 

 so described had an imperfect tail not rounded, as he had 

 found it to be in more perfect specimens subsequently exa- 

 mined. In all probability, the bird even when Latham saw 

 it had not its own tail, or if it had, the lateral tail feathers, 

 which would have borne the white marks (if it had any), were 

 wanting. Failing independent evidence, we necessarily fall 

 back on what Latham himself understood by his Great-billed 

 Tody. This he shows us apparently loc. cit., when he specifies 

 the white on the two outer pairs of tail feathers, though it must 

 be confessed that his statement of the white being on the 

 outer webs, his white edge to the wing, excessively short tail, 

 and above all whole lower half of the back red, somewhat 

 complicates the identification. 



Anyhow Latham's macrorhynchus, as identified by himself, 

 is not the Bornean race ; and, if the latter were separated, it 



