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11. A List of the Birds known to inhahit the Philippine Archipelago. By Arthur, 

 YiscQUTitWALD'EN, F.B.S., Preside7it of the Society. 



Read June 3rd, 1873. 



[Plates XXIII.-XXXIV.] 



In the month of December 1871 and the first three months of the following year some 

 of the principal islands of the Philippine archipelago were visited by Dr. A. Bernhard 

 Meyer, the well-known German naturalist. During that short p.-^riod this indefatigable 

 collector obtained a large series of ornithological specimens, representing ninety-six 

 species. The islands visited by him were Luzon, Negros, Zebu, Cuyo, and Guimaras, 

 the last being a small island adjoining the southern coast of Panay, and lying in the 

 channel which separates Panay from Negros. Hitherto most of the authentic so-called 

 Philippine specimens of birds contained in European collections have been procured in 

 Luzon, collected at no very great distance from the town of Manilla, its capital ; and 

 nearly all the zoological travellers who have visited the Philippines have confined their 

 researches to the vicinity of that town. It follows, consequently, that " the Philippines," 

 so frequently occurring as a geographical expression in our lists, from the days of Brisson 

 to the recent date of Mr. G. R. Gray's ' Hand-list,' must be taken to mean the coimtry 

 adjacent to the toMTi of Manilla. To this rule Sonnerat is an exception. 



After residing at Manilla, and forming collections in the interior of Luzon, Sonnerat 

 visited Antigua, the capital of the island of Panay, and then Zamboanga the chief 

 Spanish settlement in the large island of Mindanao. Panay does not seem to have been 

 revisited by any ornithologist'; but in 18-39, D'Urville's second expedition in the 

 ' Astrolabe ' remained two months at Zamboanga, and obtained a few zoological 

 specimens. 



It is possible that the late Mr. Hugh Cuming may have visited all these localities 

 and many others during his long residence in the Philippines ; but as his large 

 collection of birds was broken up without being catalogued, and as they were brought 

 to Europe at a time when geographical distribution attracted less attention than now, 

 we possess no published record of the exact localities where his specimens were obtained I 



After Sonnerat fifty-eight years appear to have elapsed before the Philippines were 



' At least there does not appear to be any pubHalied record of Panay having been again visited, although 

 Mr. Cassin (U.S. Expl. Exped. p. 143) certainly enumerates an example of Irena ci/anogastra as having been 

 obtained in this island. 



' A large portion of his ornithological collection was made in the southern part of the island of Luzon (c/. 

 P. Z. S. 1839, p. 93) ; but it has since become scattered, and the origin of many of the individual specimen.s 

 cannot now be identified. 



VOL. IX. — PART II. April, 1875. s 



