Birds of Celebes: Falconidae. 
19 
mine specimens, that the two forms lay eggs which difter remarkably, and that 
they have differently coloured irides. Nevertheless Gurney, at the time, was 
doubtful about their specific distinctness, and, in his “List of the Dmrn. B. of 
Prey in Norwich Mus.” p. 32, he only admits A. cuculoides as a questionably 
valid subspecies. It should he remembered, that both occur together in the 
same localities — China, Java (Dresd. Mus.), Celebes, and, that at one time 
Swinhoe was not quite sure of the correct nomenclature for A. soloensis, A. vir- 
gatus and A. baditis, but on one or two occasions misemployed these names, 
whence it appears not unjustifiable to suppose that the eggs in the Swinhoe 
collection, referred to by Gurney as those of A. soloensis and A. cticMloides, were in 
reality those of A. soloensis and A. virgatus, especially as A. cuculoides is not men- 
tioned by Swinhoe except in the synonymy of A. soloensis (g 2) and we are not 
aware that any fourth species, corresponding to it, was ever spoken of by him. 
After’ examining the series of these forms (nearly / 0 in all) in the British 
and I^eyden Museums (where is the type of T. cuculoides)^ in addition to six at 
Dresden, we at first were of opinion that the j)ale, more uniform plumage of 
T. cucidoides represents the old T. soloensts, especially the old male, though 
there is one very pale specimen at Leyden marked Ihere is a male in the 
British Museum, assuming the adult dress, which is of as dark a rufous on the 
breast as the female, specimen “ici'ad. Pescadores (Swinhoe; of Dr. Sharpe s 
Catalogue (cl) which retains some immature plumage; other sjjecimens, mostly 
males, if sexed, in the Ijeyden Museum afford transitions between such and the 
type of cuculoides. But this supposition — that the pale vinous specimens are 
always old — is controvei-ted by a specimen (cT) in the Sarasin Collection 
described above; it is in the pale plumage of T. cucidoides, but a few brown 
feathers not yet moulted show that it is only a second year’s bird. The only 
conditions possible seem to be, therefore, either that T. soloensis and cuculoides 
are two distinct species, as Sharpe supposed, or that they form one species which 
varies a good deal in the intensity of the rufous on the breast and slaty on the 
back. The presence of intermediate specimens, the perfect agTeement of the 
two forms in structure, and their occurrence in the same localities, are argu- 
ments against their being two species; we believe the other explanation to be 
the correct one. 
Very little has been recorded of the habits of A. soloensis. Kaup, examining 
the peculiar formation of the bill, believed himself justified in jironouncing 
that its food, especially when it has young, would prove to consist only of in- 
sects (f2)-, in Celebes v. Rosenberg found it to be “ein Hauptinsectenvertilger” 
(Malay. Archip. 1878, 271). We cannot put much stress upon cither of these 
two statements. The specimen obtained by Zelebor during the visit of the 
“Novara” to Kar Nicobar was shot, however, while it was unsuccessfully chasing 
an Oriolus niacrourus (Novara-Reise, Vog. p. 12). 
When a species is found to range far over a group of islands and yet 
develop no differences of coloration in the various localities, it is usually safe 
3 * 
