ON THE GENUS LOEICULUS. 241 



a probable eyent, that this individual bird, by some chance, has or may 

 become the progenitor of a new local race. I do not remember whether it 

 was the male or the female. The other specimen later came into the 

 possession of the Zoological Society of London. 



" Even without such an occasion as the one mentioned, ships assist in 

 the dispersal of birds involuntarily : they oflPer resting-places for those driven 

 out by winds and storms, which would otherwise perish from exhaustion. 

 Just on the same route, from Manilla to London, I saw in the China Sea, 

 west of Borneo, where no land was in sight (i. e. on the high sea), a 

 Rapacious bird rest on the sailyard of the steamer and feed on a Swallow. 

 The monsoons no doubt perform a grand function in these regions in the 

 dispersal of birds. Those flying, for instance, in the month in which I made 

 the voyage back to Europe (in April), from Borneo to the west, cannot return 

 against the monsoon, and reach Palawan or China, if they do not perish 

 before. All the small islands north of Borneo assist such an interchange 

 of birds between Borneo and the Philippine Islands. "When going to 

 Manilla from Singapore I saw, on the high sea to the north of Borneo, two 

 large fruit-eating Pigeons (^Carpophagd) resting on the sailyard ; and similar 

 instances could easily be quoted. 



^' Loriculus regulus was taken by me more numerously in March 1872, 

 on the mountains of the southern end of the island of Negros. This is not 

 far from Mindanao; indeed the mountains of this island are clearly to be 

 seen from the southern district of Negros. The specimens were shot on the 

 slopes of the high volcano which terminates the mountain-chain of the island 

 in the south. My station was in the village of St. Valentia, which lies some 

 miles from Dumaguete, the nearest place on the seashore and the largest on 

 Southern Negros. It is valuable to know this with respect to future critical 

 examination and understanding of the Mindanao species which probably 

 remain undiscovered. 



" In these forests of Negros Loriculus regulus was plentiful. It is 



VOL. II. 2 L 



