BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. . 381 



It always keeps its crest fully erected, and as Dr. Stoliczka re- 

 marked it looks like a gigantic Lophophanes. Its note is veiy 

 peculiar, and once heard not easily forgotten; it is a sharp click- 

 ing metallic rattle. A small metal rattle made to revolve rapidly 

 would produce a very similar sound. 



The food I believe consists entirely of insects, such as beetles, 

 &c. It is almost always seen in pairs, but on two occasions I 

 think I saw three or four together. — W. D.] 



Tenasserim specimens do not differ from those of the Malay- 

 an Peninsula. I have a splendid series preserved by Davison 

 and his assistants in both provinces, but native-prepared 

 specimens from Malacca, from some cause, are almost without 

 exception much greyer than our specimens shot in the same 

 localities. The birds prepared at Malacca by the natives 

 are dried without paper covers in the sun, which may account 

 for the difference in color. Certainly, whereas Mr. Sharpe, de- 

 scribing from Malaccan specimens, defines the general color of 

 the bird as dark slaty grey, there is not one particle of grey 

 anywhere about the bird when freshly killed, or in good speci- 

 mens that have been carefully preserved from the lio-ht in 

 close paper covers from the first. 



The sexes do not differ materially. The females are slightly 

 smaller; and have the lower surface slightly paler, but no "adult 

 full plumaged bird that I have seen is at all slaty grey. Younger 

 birds are, of course, grey beneath. 



Since the above was written, the following remarks from the 

 pen of my friend, Mr. D. Gr. Elliot, have appeared in the Ibis :— 

 " In the lately published third volume of his ' Catalogue of 

 Birds' (p. 317, ei seq.), Mr. Sharpe has acknowledged three 

 species of the genus Platylophus, as follows :— P. gatericulatus 

 (Cuv.), from Java, with a jet-black plumage; P. ardesiacus, 

 (Cab.), from the Malayan Peninsula, with a slaty black plumage 

 (back inclining to olive-brown, beneath slaty grey) ; and P. 

 coronatus (Raffles), from Sumatra and Borneo, with a rufous- 

 brown plumage. Cuvier ^who evidently named the bird from 

 LevaHlant's figure), and Vieillot (who gave a short description 

 of it in the same year, under Cuvier's name), apparently had 

 never seen the species, and their type specimens, if existing, 

 are not known. Having had occasion lately to investigate °a 

 portion of the Corvidce, my attention was drawn to the speci- 

 mens in the Paris Museum, which served as the types of Les- 

 son's Vanga galericulata, which he refers to Cuvier's Gamdus 



galericidatus, and the result of my examination is as follows : 



There are two examples, representing male and female, both 

 brought from Java by M. Diard in 1821. The male is in the 

 black dress characteristic of P. gatericulatus (Cuv.), but is not 

 in fully adult plumage, as 1 perceive by comparison with 



