Ltt MALAYAN OBNITHOLOGY. 



The following is from my notes : — 



"Tanglin, Singapore, 1st April, 1879. When we were quartered 

 here more than a year ago, the Spotless Starlings, as. we call them, 

 used to congregate in great numbers on the upper limbs of an 

 enormous tree, dead and quite bare of all foliage, wliich stood a few 

 hundred yards from our mess ; this afternoon 1 found them as 

 numerous there as formerly, and watched them building their nests, 

 carrying straw and other soft materials into the holes in the upper 

 parts of the tree-trunks, far out of reach, the lowest nest being at 

 least a hundred feet from the ground, and the tree as smooth and 

 branchless as the mast of a ship. 



' : I managed to shoot a couple of the birds, and dissected them. 

 Hitherto I thought the dark ones of uniform metallic-green plu- 

 mage were all males ; but on examining these I found this not to 

 be the case, the ovaries being very conspicuous in the dark-colour- 

 ed bird, while in the other, of grey mottled plumage, I detected 

 the testes, though they were Yery small. Their stomachs contained 

 seeds, vegetable substance, and the remains of caterpillars. 



" Dcficrijjttons : — 



" No. 1. A female,, length 7% inches, irides pale crimson, legs 

 and beak black, plumage black, very richly glossed with metallic 

 green, feathers of the neck very lanceolate. 



: ' No. 2. A male (immature), length 8 inches, irides, legs, and 

 beak as in female, plumage very slightly glossed with green, upper 

 parts dusky, the feathers edged with grey, underparts greyish 

 white, the feathers dashed with dark central streaks." 



Every year, about the end of July, these birds collect in great 

 numbers among the trees in the gardens round the bungalows at 

 Tanglin, to feed on the berries ; on 31st July, 1879, I shot several 

 of them, some in the dark green, others in the dusky spotted plu- 

 mage ; but the last were far the more plentiful. I think I am 

 correct in putting down the birds of spotted plumage as young, 

 both the sexes when adult assuming the uniform metallic-green 

 plumage — and in saying that the irides of the immature birds are 

 yellow, orange, or pink, increasing in intensity as the bird advances 

 in age, until they become deep red in the fully-grown bird. 



They assemble towards evening and roost in company, several 



