BRODERIPUS FORMOSUS (Cab.) 



By Mr. G. D. ROWLEY. 



(Plate LVI.) 



Oriolus acrorhynchus, ScMeg. Mus. P.-B. Cor. p. 104 (1867). (Specimens from the Sangi L) 

 Oriolus formosus, Cabanis^ J. f. Orn. xx. p. 392 (1872) ; Briiggemann^ Abh. nat. Ver. Bremen. 

 V. p. 61 (1876) ; Salvador!, Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. ix. p. 60 (1876-77). 



This species, the largest of the Orioles, was sent to me by Dr. Meyer. It 

 has never been figured before, as far as I know. Gray, in his ^Genera,' has 

 a very fine plate of an allied one — Oriolus acrorhynchus, Vig., of the 

 Philippines ; while the only European member of the genus is greatly 

 prized and esteemed by British ornithologists, who pursue Oriolus galhula, 

 Linn., with the utmost eagerness, and perhaps thus prevent its breeding in 

 England, as I have good reason to suppose. 



Lord Walden (now Lord Tweeddale) says (Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. ix. 

 part 2, p. 186J, after some interesting remarks on Broderipus acrorhyn-^ 

 chus : — ^'The direction of variation in this species may therefore be said to 

 be towards O. melanocephalus and from 0. galbula; or, in other words, 

 O. galhula is the older species, B, acrorhynchus and its allies being subsequent 

 forms, and O. melanocephalus and its allies the most recent. A third species, 

 allied to B. acrorhynchus and B, frontalis, exists in Oriolus formosus , Cabanis, 

 Journ. f. Orn. 1872, p. 392, 'Island of Siou,' the largest of all known 

 Orioles.^' 



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