Birds of Celebes: Eallidae. 
719 
Variation. The specimens from N. Celebes yary much in size and in the proportions of 
the different parts, in some the middle toe being, when compared with the tarsus, 
much longer than in others; and so for the other parts, each part varying in tliis 
bird, as hi all other birds of which we have made or seen measurements, independently. 
The frontal shield in the Minahassan bh’ds varies much in adults, both in 
size and shape. In the young it is of course very small, hut, taking only specimens 
wliich from the darker, more uniform colour of the upper parts and the absence of 
all traces of pale tips on the abdomen seem to be fully adult, the greatest width of 
the shield in specimen d (the narrowest) is 21.5 mm, in b (the broadest) 26 mm; but 
it is longer in the first specimen than in the second, viz. from nostril 39.5 as against 
38 mm. As a rule Celehesian birds display a tolerably straight hind-margin to the 
shield, with fairly sharp, though rounded comers, but there are exceptions also to 
this (0 355 . 1 , less so C 2011, C 2027); and when it is known that this j)art varies with 
age (probably it is continually undergoing variation during the bfe-time of each in- 
dividual), it seems obvious that its value as a criterion for species is nil. 
As to colour, adult birds in North Celebes vary very little among themselves, 
both as regards the glossy clove-brown of the upper surface and the blue of the 
breast and other under-parts, and we find that these hues suffer little from keeping, 
specimens killed by Meyer in 1871 agreeing perfectly well with the freshest skins 
before us. Herein, therefore, we are inclined to be at variance with Dr. Sharpe, 
when he remarks that he believes that the greenish gloss of P. (MwU of the Admiralty 
Islands is due only to the fresh condition of the plumage. But there is a “thin” 
look about the feathers of the u]5per smlace of many of the old skins from N. Celebes, 
as if their pigment had dried up and faded, and the feathers display close, narrow 
cross-bars, more or less distinct; it is more difficult to find these traces in the fresh 
skins in hand, but we suspect that they will be more apparent in the living bird 
when in worn plumage after the breeding season, though most probably this character 
varies. Immature birds from N. Celebes display a greener or fighter brown on the 
upper surface, due to the feathers being broadly fringed with burnt umber or bronze- 
green; one of our specimens has a more glaucous blue tint on the breast like Javan 
adults. Dr. Sharpe remarks that it is probable that the Javan bird ranges to N. 
Celebes, specimens examined by him from Gorontalo being calvus^ while those from 
Ayer Panuas (this is a place on Lake Limbotto whence the “Gorontalo” specimens 
also came) and Tondano are P. smaragdintis. It may well be that N. Celebes has 
been colonised from the south-west (Java and S. Celebes) and also from the east, that 
the present is a mixed race, the result of interbreeding, and that the birds resem- 
bling those of Java, like the immature specimen just mentioned, are not adult or are 
individual varieties in which “ancestral influences” have taken strong effect; but it 
may also be that the gradual transitions from the Javan form to those of Australia 
and New Zealand arose, as the bird spread its range from west to east and south, 
from as yet unknown causes which became stronger as the geograpliical separation frojn 
Java grew wider (see Haliastiir hidus). 
Eggs. Three to five; spotted with black and red (N. Celebes, Meyer c 5). Gallinufine in type; 
long oval, with rounded tip; dirty clay-yellow, with smaller and larger spots of fiver- 
brown and paler shell-spots, somewhat conglomerated about the large end, the remain- 
ing surface almost clear: from 47.6 X 32.2 to 45.5 X 32.0 mm (S. E. Borneo — 
Grabowsky: Kutter, J. f. O. 1884, 225). 
Nest. Of heaps of rice-plant, brought together and trampled down (N. Celebes, Meyer c 5). 
Of damp, rotting grass, scarcely above the surface of the water: Aj)ril 25^*^, 1882 
(S. E. Borneo — Grabowsky 1. c.). 
