Birds of Celebes: Coraciidae. 
313 
right, and Ave think that other writers in a similar position to ours would also 
do well, in order not to involve themselves and others in more perplexity, to 
disregard the variations of this species and to speak of it simply as E, orientalis^ 
until some one has thoroughly taken the whole matter in hand and shown what 
these variations really mean, The following references bear upon the occurrence 
of E. orientalis in the Celebesian Province. 
Eurystomus orientalis (L.). 
a. Eurystomus pacifieus (1) Wall., P. Z. S. 1862, 339; (2) Legge, B. Ceylon, 1880, 285; 
(III) Dress., Mon. Oorac. 1893, 75, pi. XIX. 
Eurystomus orientalis (1) Sclil., Mas. P.-B. Ooraces, 1867, 139, 140; (2) Wald., Tr. Z. S. 
1872, ym, 43; (3) Briigg., Abli. Ver. Bremen 1876, V, 49; (4) Salvad., Ann. 
Mus. Civ. Gren. 1876, IX, 53; (5) Bosenb., Malay. Ar chip. 1878, 271; (6) Meyer, 
Ibis 1879, 60; (7) Salvad., Orn. Pap. 1880, I, 508; (8) W. Bias., J. f. 0. 1883, 
135; (9) Meyer, Isis, Dresden 1884, 6; (10) Gfuillem. , P. Z. S. 1885, 546; (11) 
W. Bias., Ztschr. ges. Orn. 1886, 89; (12) id., Ornis 1888, 579; (13) Hickson, Xat. 
in X. Celebes 1889, 90; (14) Dresser, Ibis 1891, 101; (15) Blittik., Zool. Erg. 
Weber’s Reise in Ost.-Ind. 1893, 274; (16) M. & Wg., J. f. 0. 1894, 242; (XVII) 
Two other forms, E. crassirostris Scl. of New Gruinea and the New Britain Grroup, and E.solomonensis 
Sharpe of the Solomon Islands, are very nearly related to, but apparently do not intergrade with, 
the races of E. orientalis. E. orientalis australis and E. crassirostris occur in New Guinea together. 
We give a key to Sharpe’s supposed subspecies of E. orientalis, based upon the keys of Sharpe 
and Salvadori, and specimens before us: 
a. Paler = E. orientalis australis. 
b. Brighter, head more dusky, 
b' Terminal half of tail black. 
b" Head darker; blue colour of underparts more intense = E. orientalis laetior. 
c" Colours less intense = the typical E. orientalis. 
c' Terminal half of tail distinctly shaded with purplish blue = E. orientalis calonyx. 
It should be observed that hard and fast lines cannot be drawn between subspecies — by definition 
they intergrade — and the above key is specially applicable only to the individuals from certain geographical 
areas in which the subspecies may be said to come to a head. Thus specimens from North China, where they 
are found in summer, appear from Sharpe’s remarks (Ibis 1893, 562) to be always determinable as E. orien- 
talis calonyx; at this time of the year the race which stays nearer the equator in the Sunda Islands and 
breeds there, is supposed by him to be the typical E. orientalis — at least nine specimens sent by Mr. Everett 
to Dr. Sharpe — date not stated — all proved to be of this race, but we have elsewhere recorded calonyx, 
as well as orientalis and intermediate specimens, from Peling in summer (Abh. Mus. Dr. 1896, Nr. 2, p. 13). 
Those which migrate to Australia in summer are of the race, E. orientalis australis. In Celebes, and doubtless 
in many other quarters, such as Burmah, S. India, the Philippines, Halmahera, a confusion of forms is found 
- at all events we cannot detect any well-defined races there. It will have been noted that three (!) of 
Sharpe’s four subspecies of E. orientalis have been recorded from Celebes; moreover many of the 40 specimens 
in the Dresden Museum from there, Peling, Talaut and Sangi belong neither to the typical orientalis nor to 
orientalis calonyx, but are intermediate between the two, and such was the case with two of Mr. Dresser’s 
five specimens from Celebes. We understand Sharpe to be of opinion that these specimens of Dresser’s are 
intermediate between E. orientalis and australis (Cat. B. XVII, 34, footnote). 
Among other things it should be borne in mind that the adults found in North China in summer are 
in full breeding plumage ; probably they are duller in colour in winter and more like the typical orientalis. 
That this is so is shown by a specimen in the Dresden Museum from Great Sangi (C 838); it is moulting, and 
the new secondaries are washed with dark purplish on the external edges to their ends, while two or three 
old feathers are dull dusky, and the blue is not seen for the terminal inch of their outer webs, but only on 
the more basal part. The purple-blue is also just perceptible on the outer edges of the tail to its very tip, 
though indeed it would never be so conspicuous as in Sharpe’s figure of calonyx. 
Meyer & Wigleswortli, Birds of Celebes (Nov. 1st, 1897). 
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