16,4 McGregor: Some Features of the Philippine Ornis 413 
Steere’s law. These two species of Merops do differ in colors, but 
they are certainly of nearly the same size, and other observers 
do not agree with Steere’s statement that they differ in habits. 
If they do not belong to one subgenus then genera and subgenera 
mean nothing. Steere gives several other genera that seem to 
conflict with his law, and his explanations for these are similar 
to his explanation for Merops. 
There are other cases of two species of one genus occurring in 
one place that Steere did not know of. It would be interesting 
to know the generic characters on which Steere would separate 
Leptocoma sperata from L. henkei and Oriolus albiloris from 
0. isabellse. The two species of Leptocoma can be found feeding 
in the same tree; and the two species of forest orioles, which 
were unknown to Steere, inhabit exactly the same kind of woods ; 
in fact my first specimens were killed in one grove of trees in 
Bataan Province. 
The second part of Steere’s law, or the law “in more general 
terms,” seems to be meaningless, for if two species, of the same 
genus or of different genera, occupy the same area, this fact 
proves that they are adapted to the same conditions. 
It is not my intention to say any more about Steere’s law, 
for the evidence has been fully discussed by Worcester, but 
the distribution of some of the species that do conform to Steere’s 
law is interesting. The distribution of the three species of the 
endemic genus Hydrocorax illustrates what Steere intended to 
express in his law. Hydrocorax hydrocorax inhabits Luzon and 
Marinduque; the bill and casque are entirely bright red, the 
upper outline of the casque is straight, and the anterior end 
overhangs the culmen. Hydrocorax mindanensis inhabits Min- 
danao and Basilan; the casque and the basal half of the bill 
are bright red ; the terminal half of the bill is whitish ; the out- 
line of the bill is similar to that of H. hydrocorax: Hydrocorax 
semigaleatus inhabits Samar, Leyte, Biliran, Bohol, and Panaon ; 
the bill is red and whitish as in H. mindanensis; the casque is 
contracted in front, its anterior end sinking to the culmen and 
not forming an anterior overhanging projection. The last spe- 
cies is the type of Platycorax Oberholser. 
The distribution of the endemic species of a nonendemic genus 
is illustrated by Loriculus. 
Loriculus philippensis (P. L. S. Muller) is found in Luzon and in some 
of the small islands near it. 
Loriculus mindorensis Steere is confined to Mindoro. 
Loriculus botirnsi McGregor inhabits Romblon, Tablas, and Sibuyan. 
