46 ON THE SPECIES OF HYPSIPETES 



Dr. Kirk at Mohilla* was of this species. The second (H. horhonicus) is 

 confined to the Island of Reunion (formerly Bourbon). The third {H. 

 oUvaceus) is limited to Mauritius. And the fourth QH. crassirostris) is 

 peculiar to the Seychelles group. 



Rodriguez, so far as research has hitherto carried us^ shews no sign of 

 having ever possessed any member of the genus — a very singular fact when 

 we think that geographically it lies nearest to the Indian Region, the focus 

 of this type of birds. Both my brother and I have looked in vain 

 among the bones obtained from the caves of that island by Mr. Jenner, and 

 more recently by Mr. H. H. Slater, for a fragment which we could refer to 

 the genus Hypsipetes, Remains of a Starling-like bird, already indicated by 

 a nameless French navigator f , and distinguished by the cave-hunter of the 

 late Transit-of- Venus Expedition (in the as yet unpublished report of his 

 investigation) as Necropsar, as well as those of more than one other form of 

 Passeres are forthcoming ; but there is no trace of an Hypsipetes. 



This genus has been fortunate also in its appellation. On whose 

 inspiration Vigors, when he selected the word, acted, it were now vain to 

 surmise ; but from what has been said by Jerdon J and others of the Indian 

 species, vy\n7reT7]9 (the ^'high-flyer") is not only applicable to but eminently 

 characteristic of its members : theirs it is 



^^To dwell aloft on life-snfEcing trees. '^ 



That the same may be truly said of the non-Indian forms is evident from 

 the following notes, with which my brother has been good enough to 

 furnish me : — 



" The three species of this genus [H. madagascariensis^ H. oUvaceus^ and 



* Ibis, 1864, p. 298. MM. Pollen and Van Dam {op. cit. p. 97) say that Dr. Kirk also found 

 this species at Anjuan (Johanna) ; but I have not discovered the passage in which this assertion is 

 made. 



t Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875, pp. 39--43; Alph. Milne-Edwards, Ann. Sc. Nat. Zool. ser. 6, 

 ii. art. 4. J Birds of India, ii. pp. 77-80. 



