30 Mr. Blyth — A few Identifications 



Eurystomus orientalis, L., is given as " a summer visitant to 

 Southern China" by Mr. Swinhoe ; but three Chinese specimens 

 of this genus in the Derby Museum of Liverpool, collected by 

 Mr. Robert Fortune, are of the Australian race, E. australis, 

 Swainson. Merops philippinus was also obtained in China by 

 Mr. Fortune. In the same museum I likewise found a specimen 

 of Lanius hardwicUi, Vig., marked from " China " -, and one of 

 Nectarinia flammaxillaris, nobis (a common Burmese species), 

 marked " China, very rare.''^ 



Among the Philippine birds in that museum, I find Strix 

 Candida, Tickell (v. longimembris, Jerdon), Calliope camschat- 

 kensis, Megalurus palustris, and Leucocerca javanica. From 

 Java, Acrocephalus brunnescens, Jerdon ; and Tiga (v. Chryso- 

 ptilus) intermedia, nobis, identical with the common Burmese 

 race. A Collocalia from the Philippines is like C. fuciphaga, 

 but paler, witli dull white rump, and the lower parts albescent ; 

 I think, similar to examples from the Navigators^ Islands. 



Halcyon leucocephalus, Gmelin. There are as many as five 

 distinguishable races of this bird, respectively from India [H. 

 gurial, Pearson), Burma, Malayan peninsula, Java, and Philip- 

 pines ; the name leucocephalus applying strictly only to the last of 

 them. This has no dark cap whatever ; the head, neck, and under 

 parts are dingy white, slightly tinged with ferruginous, except 

 on the crown; back, wings, and tail less deeply coloured than 

 in the Malayan race, more as in the Indian ; some dusky feathers 

 behind the eye ; wing 6^ in. The Javanese is intermediate be- 

 tweel4 the Philippine and Burmese races, having a pale brownish 

 cap not well defined. The cap is darkest in the Malayan race, 

 wherein only it is more or less glossed with bright colouring; 

 and this more deeply coloured race is also smaller than the 

 others. Were it not for the intermediate races, few ornitholo- 

 gists would think of ranging the Malayan and Philippine under 

 the same specific head. 



Alcedo grandis, nobis (J. A. S. vol. xiv. p. 190), from Sikhim, 

 has been erroneously assigned to A. euryzona, Temm., of which 

 A. nigrica7is, nobis (J. A. S. vol. xvi. p. 1180), from Malacca, is 

 the young. A. euryzona has white under-parts, crossed by a 

 broad dark green pectoral band (whence the name, which is 

 quite inapplicable to the other), much as in the small A. beryl- 



