16 



TAHAN EXPEDITION. 



Among the most interesting birds I may specially mention the 

 large series of Pericrocotus, which seems to show that P. croc ens, 

 Sharpe, is founded on a mere colour variety of P. montanus, Symium 

 maingayi, Hume, a very rare species of Wood-owl; Rheinardtius 

 nigreseens (Bx>thsch.), the rare Malayan crested Argus; vavlPolyplectron 

 inopinatus (Eothsch.), the beautiful Peacock-Pheasant, recently de- 

 scribed by Mr. Rothschild, who considered it to belong to the genus 

 GhalcurtbB. 



Throughout the following paper, for the sake of brevity, my Report 

 on the Birds in the Fasciculi Malavenses is quoted throughout as 

 " Grant : " 



coRvnm 



1. CISSA ROBINSONI, Gbawt. 

 (PL III., Fig. 1.) 



Cissa robinsoni, Grant, Bull. B.O.C., xix., No. cxxvii., p. 9 (1906). 



Adult male, most nearly allied to C. minor, Cab., but the inner- 

 most secondaries have wider white tips indistinctly margined in- 

 ternally with blackish, and lack the strongly marked subterminal black 

 bars characterestic of C. minor and other allies. From C. jefferyi, 

 Sharpe, it differs in having a much longer tail and very much wider 

 tips and subterminal black bars to the outer tail-feathers ; the white 

 tips to the secondaries are likewise very different. Iris, whitish 

 wattle round eye, carmine ; bill and feet, orange -vermilion. 



Total length : ca., 13.0 in.; culmen, 1.57 in.; wing, 5.35 in.; tail, 

 6.15 in. ; tarsus, 1.7 in. 



a. m. Gimong Tahan. 6,500 ft. 15th July, 1905. (No. 378). 



[I never saw this bird myself, and it must be very rare as only one 

 other specimen, or rather the remains of one that had been killed by 

 some carnivore, was noted, though we all hunted for it assiduously 

 for a week. 



I am inclined to think that it was possibly a stray specimen from 

 a more thickly wooded slope on the Kelantan side of the range, which, 

 from want of transport and supplies, we were unable to reach. 



The addition of the genus Cissa to the fauna of the Malay 

 Peninsula is perhaps the most noteworthy feature of our bird 

 collection.— H. C. E.] 



2. PLATYSMURUS LEUCOPTERFS (TEMM.). 



Platysmurus leucopterus, Grant, p. 66. 



a.. 1). /. Kuala Tembeling, Pahang River. 200 ft, 2nd September, 1905. 

 (Nos. 035, 636). 



Iris, red ; bill and feet, black. 



[A noisy and quarrelsome bird, very local in its distribution : 

 usually found in secondary jungle near villages, but not in orchard or 

 garden-land. — H. C. E.] 



