IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



This bird is about the size of a thrush, with a large stout bill. 

 With the exception of a wide collar of brilliant scarlet, the plumage 

 is entirely of a glossy black. The crown of the head is bright 

 yolk-yellow, denuded of feathers and covered with small and thickly 

 set conical fleshy papillae, while the space round the eyes is also bare, 

 with the skin coloured bright red. 1 



Pityriasis can boast of a prerogative rare amongst birds — the 

 females are more brightly coloured than the males. The difference 

 in the plumage between the sexes is not great, but in the females, 

 the flanks are spotted with red, whilst in the males they are of a 

 uniform black. The bird feeds on insects, and the stomachs 

 of those I shot contained the remains of Coleoptera, especially 

 Brenthidce. This explains the presence of the birds in the neigh- 

 bourhood of a recent clearing, where, on the felled trunks, such 

 insects abound. This was the only occasion on which I met with 

 Pityriasis during my three-years' stay in Borneo. 



In mentioning Pityriasis I remarked incidentally that Borneo 

 possessed few peculiar species of birds, i.e. such as are not found 

 in the neighbouring regions. And this is quite true ; for although 

 Borneo supports such a rich and varied series of organic products, 

 strange to say it is not, proportionally to other insular regions, rich 

 in endemic types giving a marked character to its fauna, as the birds 

 of paradise in New Guinea. 



Both the fauna and flora of Borneo belong to the forest type 

 which extends over the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and, in a lesser 

 degree, Java. It is, however, with the Malay Peninsula, perhaps, 

 more than with Sumatra, that the organic products of Borneo show 

 closest affinities, so much so as to cause surprise that these two 

 regions are now separated by a wide tract of sea ; indeed, the resem- 

 blance could not be greater were they united. So much is this the 

 case in regard to the fauna, that it can be safely asserted that 

 the mammals, birds, and reptiles of Borneo are either absolutely 

 identical, or else represented by closely allied species on the Malay 

 Peninsula. 



The same may be said in a general way of the flora, though 

 Borneo has a larger share of peculiar species. But, notwithstanding 

 this, it forms one and the same botanical region with the Malay 

 Peninsula. A notable exception is, however, caused by Mount Kina 

 Balu, whose very elevated summit, with a special climate, has 

 enabled strange heterogeneous forms, derived from different distant 

 regions, to exist amid the insular flora. 



1 In the coloured plate of this species published in the fifth volume of 

 the Annali del Museo Civico di Genova, the circumocular region is made rose 

 colour. Such may have been the case when the specimens, which I had 

 preserved in spirits, were taken out to be mounted. But my notes taken at 

 once from the freshly killed specimens are very precise on this point. 



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