THE BIRDS OF SOUTH-WEST AND PENINSULAR SIAM. 189 



284. Calloiophus miniatus perlutus Kloss. 



Callolophils malaccensis. A., p. 140 partim (Tavov to Tenasserim 



Town) ; C. ii, p. 47. 

 C/iryso phlegm a miniattim nialaccense, Gvldenstolpe, Kvingl. Sv. Yet. 



Akad. Handl. 56, No. 2, 1916, p. 91 (Hat Sanuk). 

 Calloiophus miniatus perhdus^ Kloss, Ibis, 1918, p. 110 (Koh Lak); 



Stuart Baker*, Ibis, 1919, p. 193 (critical remarks). 

 (jallolophus mineatus malaccensis, M., p. 423 (Patiyu). 



2 S, vix ad. Hat Sanuk, Rajburi, S. W. Siam, 13-18 April 

 1919 (Nos. 5272, 5389). 



" Iris red or vieiina brown ; upper mandible black, lower 

 silvery slate; feet sage or plumbeous green." 



Total length 263, 268 ; wing 136, 135 ; tail 98, 98 ; tarsus 25, 

 25 : bill from gape 30, 33 mm. 



Stuart Baker in some critical remarks on this race has laid 

 down that it cannot be maintained; but his statements in support of 

 his opinion are very generalised and the facts are against him. In 

 the past the use of large scale charts has been urged by British poli- 

 ticians, and the advice is equally pertinent to modern day 

 systematists. The political entity, Siam, covers fully 15 degrees of 

 latitude, or a sixth of the earth's quadrant from pole to equator : it 

 comprises districts with a rain-fall varying from 400 inches to 40, 

 and with a range of temperature which may be 50 degrees or may 

 not exceed 20. It is, therefore, surely unscientific to contend, be- 

 cause birds found in one district or area, which include in their des- 

 criptive data the word " Siam," do not agree in characters with 

 another set in which this word is also included, that characters 

 not found in both sets have no real existence and are not differential. 



Mr. Baker's further contention that because a character or 

 set of characters which are dominant in one locality occur in another 

 area, therefore a subspecies founded on them is invalid, strikes at the 

 whole modern conception of subspecies. Nature proceeds in the 



* Spelt perlattcs. 



!■ Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handl. IWI. Baker, Journ. N. H. Soe. Siam, iii, 1919. 



56, No. 2, 1916. (first part). 



J. Robinson, Journ. F. M. S. Mus. vii, 1917. Baker, Jonrn. N.H. Soc. Siam, iii, 1919. 



K. Kloss, Ibis, 1918. i - (second part). 



Li Robinson and Kloss, Joni-n. N. H. Soc. Siam, M. !. Baker, Journ. N. H. Soc. Siam, iv, 1920. 



iii, 1919. (third part). 



VOL. V, NO. 2, 1922. 



