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PROBABLE HYBRID BETWEEN THE SCARLET-BACKED 



FLOWER-PECKER (DICTUM CRUENTATUM) AND 

 THE FIRE-BREASTED FLOWER-PECKER 

 (Z>. IGNIPECTUS). 

 By E. C. Stuart Baker, F.Z.S. 



{Read hefore the Bombay Natural History Society on 6th Dec, 1897.) 



Mr. C. Inglis has forwarded to me a remarkable little Flower- 

 peoker which appears to me to be a cross between the two species 

 mentioned in the heading. The upper plumage does not seem 

 to differ in the slightest respect from the ordinary Red-backed Flower- 

 pecker, but the under parts are coloured like those of D. ignipectus, but 

 that the red on the upper breast is decidedly less in extent, and, more- 

 over, there are traces of red on the throat as well. The dimensions 

 are those of D. cruentatum, and the bill is exactly similar to that of 

 that bird, and not like the shorter, stouter one of D. ignipectus. 



Mr. Inglis writes to me that he has kept no notes about the bird 

 beyond that he shot it on the 27th April at Roopacherra in Cachar. It 

 was feeding alone on a flowering creeper growing beside a road. 



The bird was sent first to Mr. Finn of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, 

 but he returned it to Mr. Inglis saying that he thought it was merely 

 a variety of D. cruentatum, and, although he could find no other 

 specimens in the Museum which showed any signs of the red breast, he 

 believed that he had seen some caged specimens shoioing red on the breast. 



Personally, I should doubt its being an abnormally coloured bird, and 

 think that if it is not a hybrid it must be a new species, and if it proves 

 to be this, I would suggest the name Dicceum hybridum for it, as this 

 expresses so exactly what the bird looks like. 



One point against the bird being a hybrid, is the different elevations 

 affected by the two species. D. cruentatum is essentially a low 7 level 

 and plains bird, whereas D. ignipectus is seldom found below 3,000 feet. 

 Here, in Cachar, I have never seen it lower down than about 3,600 feet. 



I have not examined the series of Dicceum cruentatum in the British 

 Museum, but had there been any trace of red on the breasts of any of 

 them, I do not think it could possibly have escaped the notice of such 

 observers as Oates, Blanford and others, who have made no mention of 

 such marking in any book to which I have access. 



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