52 VISCOUNT WALDEN ON THE BIKDS OF CELEBES. 



PlKENICOPHAIN^E. 



Phoenicophaes, Vieillot. 



60. Phcenicophaes calorhynchus (Temm.), Nouv. Eec. livr. lix. pi. 349, "Celebes" 

 (25th of June 1825); Wallace, Malay Archip. ii. p. 340. 

 Le Malcoha a bee peint, Less. Complem. de Buffon, ii. p. 61 8, pi. — . fig. 1. 



Hob. Gorontalo (Forsten) ; Menado, Macassar (mus. nostr.). 



MM. Verreaux proposed (Eev. & Mag. Zool. 1855, p. 356) to restrict Vieillot's generic 

 title Phoenicophaes to a small group consisting of this species, of P. curvirostris, Shaw, 

 P. erythrognathus, Temm., and a fourth species, P. ceneicaudus, Verr., not since obtained. 

 And they suggested a new generic title, Alectorops, for the reception of Cuculus pyrrho- 

 cephalus, Forster. But, as Forster's Ceylon Malkoha is the type of Phcenicopha'es, this 

 arrangement cannot be recognized. 



Dr. Cabanis (Mus. Hein. iv. p. 85), concurring in the propriety of separating the 

 Ceylon species from the others, retained it, Vieillot's type species, in Phoenicophaes, 

 and proposed Bhamphococcyx for the small Indo-Malayan group. The grounds for 

 this separation are the great extent of naked space surrounding the eye, the abnormal 

 colouring of the plumage, the form of the bill, and the position and shape of the nostrils 

 in P. pyrrhocephalus. The naked space is certainly more extended than in P. curvi- 

 rostris or P. erythrognathus ; but then P. calorhynchus has the ophthalmic region almost 

 entirely clothed. The colouring of the plumage differs principally in that white replaces 

 the rufous of P. curvirostris and P- erythrognathus, thus evincing an affinity to Mhopo- 

 dytes, Cab. (Zanclostomus of Indian authors, but not of Swainson). The tail is tipped 

 with white instead of rufous ; but the upper plumage in all three is green. In P. 

 calorhynchus green is entirely absent, and the tail is uniform in colour. In colouring 

 P. calorhynchus is as much an isolated species as P. pyrrhocephalus. The form of the 

 bill in all four species is very similar ; but the position and shape of the nostrils is 

 different in each of the four. The nostril of P. pyrrhocephalus (fig. 8) is placed in a 

 narrow, depressed, lengthened, oval slit, which runs almost parallel with the commis- 

 sure, yet slightly descending. Its situation is almost on the edge of the commissure, 

 and at an unusual distance from the base of the maxilla. In P. curvirostris (Shaw) 

 (fig. 6) the nostrils are set at the commencement of a deep narrow groove or channel. 

 In P. erythrognathus, Bp. 1 (fig. 7), the nostril is a simple round hole. The nostril of P. 

 calorhynchus (fig. 5) is an elongated slit, like that of P. pyrrhocephalus, but running quite 

 parallel with the commissure, and not so near its edge ; nor is it as advanced from the 

 base of the maxilla. The position and shape of the nostrils in these four species is so 

 peculiar and distinctive, that the species could be determined from a fragment of the 

 maxilla alone. The striking difference in the shape of the nasal opening of the Javan 

 P. curvirostris and Sumatran, Moluccan, and Bornean P. erythrognathus (forms which 



1 Consp. i. p. 98. 



