Birds of Celebes: Rallidae. 719 



Yariation. The specimens from N. Celebes vary much in size and in the proportions of 

 the different parts, in some the middle toe being, when compared with the tarsus, 

 much longer than in others; and so for the other parts, each part varying in this 

 bird, as in all other birds of which we have made or seen measurements, independently. 

 The frontal shield in the Minahassan birds varies much in adults, both in 

 size and shape. In the young it is of course very small, but, taldng only specimens 

 wliich from the darker, more uniform colour of the upper parts and the absence of 

 all traces of pale tips on the abdomen seem to be fully adult, the greatest width of 

 the shield in specimen d (the narrowest) is 21.5 mm, in h (the broadest) 26 mm; but 

 it is longer in the first specimen than in the second, viz. from nostril 30.5 as against 

 38 mm. As a rule Oelebesian birds display a tolerably straight hind-margin to the 

 shield, with fairly sharp, though rounded corners, but there are exceptions also to 

 this (C 3555, less so C 2011, C 2027); and when it is known that this part varies with 

 age (probably it is continually undergoing variation during the life-time of each in- 

 dividual), it seems obvious that its value as a criterion for species is nil. 



As to colour, adult birds in North Celebes vary very little among themselves, 

 both as regards the glossy clove-brown of the upper surface and the blue of the 

 breast and other under-parts, and we find that these hues suffer little from keeping, 

 specimens killed by Meyer in 1871 agreeing perfectly well with the freshest skins 

 before us. Herein, therefore, we are inchued to be at variance with Dr. Sharpe, 

 when he remarks that he believes that the greenish gloss of P. elliofi of the Admiralty 

 Islands is due only to the fresh condition of the i>lumage. But there is a "tliin" 

 look about the feathers of the upper surface of many of the old skins from N. Celebes, 

 as if their pigment had dried up and faded, and the feathers display close, narrow 

 cross-bars, more or less distinct; it is moi-e difficult to find these traces in the fresh 

 skins in hand, but we suspect that they will be more apparent in the living bird 

 when in worn pliunage after the breeding season, though most probably this character 

 varies. Immature birds from N. Celebes display a greener or lighter brown on the 

 upper surface, due to the feathers being broadly fringed with burnt umber or bronze- 

 green ; one of our specimens has a more glaucous blue tint on the breast Hke Javan 

 adults. Dr. Sharpe remarks that it is probable that the Javan bird ranges to N. 

 Celebes, specimens examined by him from Gorontalo being calvus, wliile those from 

 Ayer Pannas (this is a place on Lake Limbotto whence the "Gorontalo" specimens 

 also came) and Tondano are P. smaragdinus. It may well be that N. Celebes has 

 been colonised from the south-west (Java and S. Celebes) and also from the east, that 

 the present is a mixed race, the result of interbreeding, and that the birds resem- 

 bHng those of Java, like the immature specimen just mentioned, are not adult or are 

 individual varieties in which "ancestral influences" have taken strong effect; but it 

 may also be that the gradual transitions from the Javan form to those of Austraha 

 and New Zealand arose, as the bird spread its range from west to east and south, 

 from as yet unknown causes which became stronger as the geographical separation from 

 Java grew ■wader (see Haliasfur iiidus). 

 Eggs. Three to five; spotted with black and red (N. Celebes, Meyer c 5). Galhnuline in type; 

 long oval, with rounded tip; dirty clay-yellow, with smaller and larger spots of hver- 

 brown and paler shell-spots, somewhat conglomerated about the lai'ge end, the remain- 

 ing surface almost clear: from 47.6 X 32.2 to 45.5 X 32.0 mm (S. E. Borneo — 

 Grabowsky: Kutter, J. f. 0. 1884, 225). 

 Nest. Of heaps of rice-plant, brought together and trampled down (N. Celebes, Meyer c 5). 

 Of damp, rotting grass, scarcely above the surface of the water: April 25"^, 1882 

 (S. E. Borneo — Grabowsky 1. c). 



