REMARKS ON THE GENUS PEMCROCOTUS. 173 



wing 35 and the female about 3'35. The male is very like 

 flammeus, but the female belongs to the elegans type ; this is 

 no doubt Lord Walden's ardens from Sumatra, wing 3 5 ; (I6is. y 

 1873, p. 310.) 



But this is certainly not Salvadori's ardens (Uccelli di Borneo, 

 p. 143) from Sarawak, of which he has four specimens — wings, 

 3"16. Nor it is V. Pelzelns* ardens (Reise Novara. Vog., p. 80) 

 which he says is like but '* conspicuously smaller" than flammeus, 

 which itself often has the wing 3*6, and in which it never 

 exceeds 375. 



In Salvadori, and V. Pelzeln's birds we have a second smaller 

 species, to which doubtless belong Lord Walden's specimens, 

 with the wing 3*10 from Malacca; and I am inclined to be- 

 lieve now that this is the true ardens, as the one I at first iden- 

 tified with ardens and provisionally named flammifer (S. ¥., III., 

 p. 221. n.) is not very appreciably smaller than flammeus, and 

 would not have been thus defined. 



Of the smaller race, the true ardens, as now I take it, I have 

 a female from Johore — a very different bird, answering well to 

 Ilafn , es , description, with an olive-green shade on the grey, 

 and only the sides of the forehead conspicuously yellow; 

 length in the flesh, 7 inches. Unfortunately both wings are 

 imperfect. We shot the bird on the 18th of August, and it had 

 just moulted, and the first two or three of its quills are still not 

 fully grown, though in all other respects the bird is in superb plu- 

 mage. I cannot, therefore, make out for certain how many of the 

 earlier primaries want the yellow patch. 



This is the most important point in the sub-group to which 

 this species pertains. I have now examined, for the purposes 

 of this paper, nearly 350 specimens of ten species of this genus 

 (Nos. 5 to 14 in the subjoined diagnosis), and I find that, in 

 the same sex" of each species, the number of primaries un- 

 marked with the red or yellow patch is absolutely constant. 

 Mind I speak of a patch, because in several species a coloured 

 hair line occurs occasionally on the next primary preceding the 

 first on which the patch appears. Of course the wing must be 

 perfect; 9a va sans dire ; the earlier primaries are the latest 

 to be fully developed, and yet it would seem amongst the first 

 to be shed ; but a careful examination of both wings, which 

 are generally symmetrically deficient, (i.e., where the second 

 quill has been shed on one side, it generally has been so 

 on the other), and comparison with other wings of the same 

 species will enable one in every case to make sure whether the 

 wing is perfect or not, ( the first primary I note seems very 

 often wanting), and in every perfect wing the point I have 

 alluded to will be found absolutely invariable in the same sex 



