226 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums.  [:Vou. XI, 
All are in the dark brown phase except the male from 
Fort de Kock, which has the head and rump pale and all 
the underparts white, the thighs showing faint rufous bars. 
Minangkabau name alang punggueé. 
This species is very common in the Padang Highlands, 
where the dark form (Sp. limnaetus Horsf.) is much more 
numerous than the light one (Sp. caligatus, Raffles). Both 
these forms belong to one and the same species ; the colour 
having nothing to do with age or sex. The white breasted 
birds remain white during all their life, and the dark ones 
are so from their youth. I have often seen pairs of which 
one was white and the other dark, the offspring being either 
light or dark ; therefore no colourblending seems to take 
place. More usually both sexes are dark, and only once, 
at Buo, I saw a pair of white birds. The dark Biaro bird 
is the young of a white female, which was shot on the nest, 
and a dark male. As the latter did not return to the nest, 
the nestling, which was the sole occupant and still clad 
in white down, was removed on the 16th October, 1913. 
After having lost its down, it at once assumed a dark coat. 
It grew quite tame and was fed on raw meat. It had to be 
killed on the 25th December, 1913, being not yet three 
month old, for when it was taken from the nest it could 
not have been more than a week old. Except for the 
colour of the eyes it could hardly be told from an adult 
bird of the dark form. 
The nest from which it was taken was made in a 
rather low tree, not more than 20 M., in a village garden. 
It was constructed of boughs, lined with a thick layer of 
decayed leaves and some hen’s feathers. 
I once saw a family composed of one light breasted 
bird and three black ones, apparently a couple with two 
young. Some days in succession they came to the same 
big tree in the vicinity of my dwelling. I only secured one 
of the dark birds. 
That sometimes two young are reared at the same 
time is also born out by my following experience. At Buo, 
I observed on the 4th March, 1914, two dark birds in a 
plantation, and succeeded in shooting one of them. The 
other flew away to a short distance, but after some time 
came back all the while calling for its companion, uttering 
a pityful sound. I hunted it round the village but it con- 
stantly returned to the spot where it had last seen its mate. 
After half an hour’s chase I managed to bring down also 
the second bird.. Of course, I thought that it was a couple, 
but to my surprise they both turned out to be young males 
(specimens from Buo). I can explain the touching attach- 
ment which the surviving bird showed towards it com- 
panion only by supposing that they came from the same 
nest. 
