Birds of Celebes: Treronidae. 
601 
Siam (Mouhot i7); Cochin China (Brit. Mus. i7); Cambodia (Brit. Mus. i7); 
“"enasSiStvison », 17); Malay Peninsula (Wall. Darling ete. i7 Ke L. 7); 
Sumatra (Baffles b 3, etc.); Banka (t. d. Bossche h 2), BOhton and Meiidanau 
, Vorderman b 7); Natuna Is. - Sirhassen and Bunguran (Everett 20); Borneo 
fMottley etc. h O); Philippine Is., inch Palawan and Sooloo (Besson b 5, Meyer 
Everett^ Platen, Steere etc. 77, 14, 13, 21)-, Celebes: - MaiBeha^e Id (Nat 
Coll. Dr. Mus.), Gorontalo Distr. Eorsten b2, Kosenh. b 2, Riedel ), 
Celebes (Doherty 23), East Celebes, Tonkean (Nat OoW.) Luwu 
the Gulf of Boni (Weber b 9), Tanette (Weber b 0), Macassar 
Bulekomba (Everett); Kangean Is. (Vorderman ft 70); Java ^ ^ 
Boie b 2, etc.); Lombok (Everett 22); Sumbawa (Guillcmard 70, Doherty 23). 
Prof W.Blasius rightly remarked in 1886 that it was strange that no 
fresh-killed specimens of this species from Celebes had come into the hands of 
recent writers on the birds of the island. Latterly, however, two examples from 
South Celebes have been recorded by Mr. Biittikofer, and among a gr^at 
number of O. ivallacei sent to the Dresden Museum from the Minahassa and the 
islands off the coast by our native collectors only a single young male of 
0. vernans was found. There is another from East Celebes, and ^ 
Everett obtained it in the West and South of the island. It is probable t^t 
the species is not particularly scarce, or becoming scarce, in the isknd, but that 
most travellers have not visited its favourite haunts. ^ 
was made in Gorontalo, not in the Minahassa as is said . by Prof. W^Blasiu . 
Ill of von Rosenberg’s specimens in the Leyden Museum vvere ^taiyd in 
the Gorontalo District, which had not been visited by ornithological co lectors 
since Meyer was there in 1871, until the Drs. Sarasin went to theylace in 
1893 but the latter did not obtain this species anyw'here in CeleheB. Dr. 
Steere (19) says that the maroon- backed O. axillaris Bp. (the Philippine re- 
piesentative of O. is aiboreal, feeding in the htgh tees “ ' 
O vernans, on the other hand, inhabits thickets, where it feeds from the bushes 
or on the ground, and is found singiy or in pairs. Kelham, who gives a good 
account of the habits of O. vernans in the Malay Peninsula, describes it as being 
particularly plentiful about the well-wooded islands to the south of the Peninsula. 
The birds have their favourite roosting-places, clumps of trees to which t^y pass 
regularly every evening before sunset; they are fond of ^ 
a tree which grows plentifully in the Straits. Similarly Mr. Wytehe^ ( _ 
describes them as common on the more open spaces in Palawan, requen mg 
small clumps of trees found in the plains. They nest, as already noticed, in 
bushes or low trees. 
0 vernans is very closely related to O.hicincta (Jerd.) of India and (reylon 
f„ Siam and Malacca. The latter bird is larger, has a broader band across the 
mil the head of the male mostly green, no vinous on the hmd neck, Davison 
nb Lrves moreover, that its note is less soft than that of O. vernans, which occurs 
in Tenasserim in common with it. No doubt, therefore, the two species are 
76 
Meyer & Wiglesworth, Birds of Celebes (Nov. 20th 1897). 
