1846.] or Little Known Species of Birds. 287 



of which differences will probably be ever a subject of dispute. Ana- 

 logous slight differences occur in certain of the mammalia, reptiles, 

 fishes, and insects, of the same regions, which are variously set down 

 as allied species, or local varieties of the same, as the opinions of in- 

 dividual naturalists vary : but if the distinctness of such races be not 

 admitted, there is no demarcating the line between them and what are 

 conceded on all hands to be allied but distinct species, as every grade 

 of approximation is abundantly manifested.* 



Rubigula gularis, XIV, 576. This bird is figured by Mr. Jerdon, in 

 the third No. of his ' Illustrations of Indian Ornithology ;' and besides 

 the ruby throat, it is both represented and described to have a black 

 chin-spot, and the tail is represented as greenish like the back. The 

 following, however, may yet prove to be the female. Length about six 

 inches and a half; wing two inches and seven-eighths ; tail two and three- 

 quarters : bill to gape three-quarters of an inch, and tarse five-eighths. 

 Colour olive-green above, below yellow throughout, sullied with greenish 



* The opposite opinion is ably maintained by M. Schlegel, in his ' Essay on the 

 Geographical Distribution of Serpents,' contained in Dr. Traill's abridged translation 

 of Schlegel's great work on serpents : but that naturalist's hypothesis of climatal and 

 local varieties carries him so far as to consider the Himalayan Jay (of course meaning 

 Garrulus ornatus, v. bispecularis,) as a " variety" only of the European species; 

 and he states—" The Paradoxurus typus is spread over Bengal, Siam, Sumatra, 

 Borneo, Amboyna, Timor, &c, and forms, in these different places, numerous varie- 

 ties, which are chiefly distinguishable by the tint and distribution of the colours, but 

 sometimes also differ in size ; in Sumatra, for example, the species is stronger than in 

 Java; in Java than in Timor, &c. ; there appears to exist in several places a variety 

 with a white tip to the tail ; and the individuals from certain parts of the island of 

 Java have a pale yellow fur, with three stripes down the back." Now this amounts, 

 in fact, to a reduction of all species that are nearly allied, to the rank of varieties only 

 of the same one, however different their locale ; and so far as climatal or local influ- 

 ence is concerned, it happens that several of the supposed "varieties" of Parodoxu- 

 rus typus co-exist abundantly in the Malayan peninsula, and without intermingling 

 so far as I have ever seen or heard of, which there can be little doubt they would do 

 freely, were they really the same. The white tail-tip is of no consequence whatever, 

 and occurs not unfrequently in several species of Paradoxurus, without affecting their 

 other distinctive characters: white feet are also common, and occasionally these animals 

 are largely pied with white also upon the body. If the different races of Paradoxuri 

 inhabiting the Malayan peninsula are not to be regarded as species, all discrimina- 

 tion of species is at an end ; no two naturalists will agree respecting the amount of 

 specifical variation ; and no confidence can be reposed in any list of names represent- 

 ing the fauna of a region. Therefore, (at all events in the present state of knowledge,) 

 1 think it right to distinguish species or permanent races to the fullest practicable ex- 

 tent ; and 1 even do not sec that identity of origin is implied by absolute similarity. 



