ART. 12 BIRDS FROM ISLANDS I^EAR BORISTEO RILEY 5 



parison, but is considerably larger. The Maratua specimen meas- 

 ures: wing, 225; tail, 71; culmen, 18; tarsus, 66; middle-toe, 45. 

 The single specimen of M. c. gilhertii (a male): wing, 195; tail, 

 67.5; culmen, 16; tarsus, 60; middle-toe, 40. 



When writing on the birds of Celebes I had to examine the birds 

 from the Philippines to determine what name to use for the Celebes 

 bird. Some notes were given as well as the measurements of all the 

 specimens of the species available to me at that time.^ There seems 

 to be more than one form in the Philippines but what names to use 

 for them, I can not settle with the material at my command. The 

 specimens from Palawan are smaller and lighter than those from 

 the other Philippine Islands, and these I have regarded as repre- 

 senting Megapodius cuiningii^ until material from northwest Borneo 

 is available for comparison. Bangs and Peters * say that Sharpe 

 fixed the type of Megapodius cumingii Dillwyn upon the Philip- 

 pines, but they overlooked Tweeddale's remarks,^ which show that 

 Dillwyn's description and plate were founded upon a Labuan speci- 

 men and that he named the Philippine form, Megapodius dillwyni^ 

 the type being one of Cuming's specimens; the only specimens of 

 Cuming listed in the Catalogue of Birds British Museum ^ come 

 from Luzon and I would definitely fix this as the type locality. The 

 specimens from Luzon and the northern islands are large and dark. 

 In the same article cited above, on a previous page, Tweeddale 

 proposed Megapodnis pusillus, founded upon a young specimen 

 from Cebu; this is indeterminable until adult specimens have been 

 examined. Megapodius forsteni halukensis Oberholser '^ was founded 

 upon a single adult female from Baluk Baluk Island, off Basilan, 

 Philippines. It is a dark bird somewhat darker than the Luzon bird 

 and measures : wing, 230 ; tail, 77 ; culmen, 18.5 ; tarsus, 61.5 ; middle- 

 toe, 40. 



The specimen of Megapodius cwimigii tolutilis is more of a cin- 

 namon-brown and not so dark below as the type of M. f. haluJcensis ; 

 the former has the wing coverts the same color as the back while in 

 the latter they are chaetura drab. 



From the above it will be readily seen there is considerable con- 

 f ustion in regard to the number of forms in the Philippines ; a con- 

 fusion that can only be unraveled by a study of much larger series 

 than are available in American museums at present. 



sProc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 64, art. 16, 1924, pp. 6-7. 



* Occasional Papers, Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 5, p. 236. 



^Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1S77, p. 766. 



« VqI. 22, 1893, p. 450. 



' Journ. Washington Acad. Sci., vol. 14, 1924, p. 294. 



