1918. ] H. C. Rospinson & C. B. Ktoss: Birds. 189 
This Bush Babbler appears to be somewhat rare in Suma- 
tra and is not recorded by many collectors, though in the 
Malay Peninsula it is one of the commonest birds in the 
submontane zone. 
The two adult specimens present somewhat marked 
differences from the large Malayan series before us, having 
the colour of the back olivaceous umber brown, with hardly 
any chestnut or russet tint; in the much darker, less chestnut, 
upper tail coverts and in the darker tail feathers themselves, 
which in one moulting bird with the feathers two thirds grown, 
are almost blackish in tint, not chestnut brown. The orange 
of the under surface is more ochraceous and less rufous than 
in the Malayan bird, which is the typical form. 
In the Malay Peninsula itself, birds from the northern 
districts, Bandon and Trang, are decidedly paler and less 
intense in colouration than those from Selangor, Negri 
Sembilan and Malacca. Eyton’s type in all probability came 
from the vicinity of Mount Ophir on the Malacca—Johore 
boundary. 
Aethostoma rostratum (Blyth). 
Trichostoma rostratum, Blyth; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. 
Mus. vil, p. 562 (1883) ; Vorderman, Nat. Tijd. Nederl. Ind. 
xlix, p. 405, no. 312 (1889); Buttikofer, Notes Leyden Mus. 
xvil, p. 87 (1895). 
Ptilocichla leucogastra, Davison, Ibis, 1892, p. 100. 
Aethostoma rostratum, Sharpe, Hand-list, Birds, iv, p. 38 
(1903). 
a. 1 6. Pasir Ganting, West Sumatran Coast, Lat. 
2S. zoth June, 1914. [No 2053.-| 
“Tris yellow, upper mandible black, lower bluish, feet 
fleshy.” 
We have compared this specimen with a large series of 
the species from the Malay Peninsula and find it identical. 
The present form has nothing to do with T. buttikofert, Vorder- 
man, Nat. Tijd. Nederl. Ind. (8) xii, p. 230 (1894), a much 
paler and somewhat smaller bird from the Lampongs in 
Southern Sumatra. 
We have no information as to its habitsin Sumatra. In 
the Malay Peninsula it is ashy and skulking bird, found among 
bushes in heavy jungle, in the low country. It is occasionally 
met with in mangrove swamps. 
117, Turdinulus epilepidota, subsp. dilutus, Rob. & Kloss. 
Mytothera epilepidota Temm. Pl. Col. 11, pl. 448, fig. 2 
(1827) (part). 
Brachypteryx epilepidota, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. xiv, 
p. 225 (1879). 
Turdinus epilepidotus, Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. vii, 
p- 540 (note) (1883). i 
Part II: Vertebrata. 
