DUTCH BORNEO-EXPEDITION. 257 
so betrachten die Dajaks als ein giinstiges Zeichen von 
seiten der Geister. Es wird nun diesen zu Ehren ein kleines 
Feuer angemacht und in einem Bambusrohr’ etwas Reis 
gekocht. Ist der Reis gar, so nimmt jeder der sick an der 
Reise betheiligen will, eine Fingerspitze voll Reis zu sich, 
worauf der Marsch unverztiglich angetreten wird in der 
festen Ueberzeugung, dass wihrend der Reise kein Ungliick 
geschehen wird.” (v. Berchtold). 
226. Copsychus musicus. 
Lanius musicus Raff. Trans. Linn. Soc. XIII, p. 307 (1822). 
Copsychus mindanensis Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 254. 
Copsychus musicus Sharpe, Cat. Birds Br. Mus. VII, p. 68; Everett 
L. B. Born. p. 99; Sharpe, Ibis 1893, p. 384. 
A fine series of adult and young birds of both sexes 
was collected at Pontianak, Smitau (Kapoeas R.), Nanga 
Raoen (Mandai R.), Poelau (Sibau R.) and on the Upper 
Mahakkam. — Iris dark brown, bill and feet black. 
This is the only species of Copsychus I met with in 
Borneo. Along the Kapoeas and its tributaries it is a com- 
mon bird in and round the native campongs, and we found 
it also very often in old ladangs (plantations) far off from 
any human habitation, and, when the water was getting 
low, on the exposed mud- and sandbanks along the rivers, 
searching for worms and insects. It is a very lively bird 
and an excellent singer. Its breeding time is about April, 
but as I was collecting that time in the Liang Koeboeng 
Mountains, where it is not found, I had no chance to pro- 
cure its nest and eggs. 
This species is spread over the whole Indo-Malayan re- 
gion, being known from Siam and Malacca, Sumatra, Banka, 
Billiton, West-Java and Borneo. On this latter island it 
seems to be less generally distributed than its black-bellied 
congener C. amoenus, as it was hitherto only recorded from 
Sarawak (Salvadori, Everett), As to the distribution of the 
present species on the island of Java, a series of 26 spe- 
cimens contained in the collection of Mr. Vorderman shows 
Notes from the Leyden Museum, Vol. xXXI. 
17 
