430 NATURAL HISTORY [chap, xviit. 



species peculiar to Timor. Two of the Flycatchers are 

 closely allied to Indian species which are not found in the 

 Malay islands. Two genera somewhat allied to the Mag- 

 pies (Streptocitta and Charitornis), hut whose affinities are 

 so douhtful that Professor Schlegel places them among 

 the Starlings, are entirely confined to Celebes. They are 

 beautiful long-tailed birds, with black and white plumage, 

 and with the feathers of the head somewhat rigid and 

 scale-like. 



Doubtfully allied to the Starlings are two other very 

 isolated and beautiful birds. One, Enodes erythrophrys, 

 has ashy and yellow plumage, but is ornamented with 

 broad stripes of orange-red above the eyes. The other, 

 Basilornis celebensis, is a blue-black bird with a white 

 patch on each side of the breast, and the head ornamented 

 with a beautiful compressed scaly crest of feathers, resem- 

 bling in form that of the well-known Cock-of-the-rock of 

 South America. The only ally to this bird is found in 

 Ceram, and has the feathers of the crest elongated up- 

 wards into quite a different form. 



A still more curious bird is the Scissirostrum pagei, 

 which although it is at present classed in the Starling 

 family, differs from all other species in the form of the 

 bill and nostrils, and seems most nearly allied in its 

 general structure to the Ox-peckers (Buphaga) of tropical 

 Africa, next to which the celebrated ornithologist Prince 



