104 
Birds of Celebes; Asionidae. 
sex, nor to locality, also that it is not to be ascribed to dimorphism, since the series 
shows transitions from greyer, dull brown birds to strong rufous. Young and nestbng 
specimens — of winch there arc four in the Sarasin Collection and one in the 
Dresden Museum — are aU of the grey-brown type, and it is therefore extremely 
probable that the intense rufous colour is simply a sign of old age. 
Young. A young one clothed in nestling down, except for the wings, tail and some feathers of 
the breast, has the bars on the outer webs of the quills white; the upper plumage 
more broccoli brown and less rufous, than in the adult; the feathers on the breast 
show that this part is more strongly mottled with white and that the under side is 
altogetlier lighter than in old birds. In tliis it resembles a young one of S. magiGiis 
from Ceram and another of S. leucospila from Halmahera — the latter marked — 
in the Dresden Musemn, wliich look as though they might have been haunting a 
flour-mill, and bear about the same degree of resemblance to their dai’k I’ufous parents 
that a miller does to his fellow men. Wing 152 mm (Yr. 7755 Manado). 
A young one in dowm is whitish brown above and below, barred with dusky 
brown {(^, Tomohon, 13. VI. 94, P. & P. 8.). 
Tw'o, a little older, are assuming the mature-looking variegated brown plumage 
on the upper parts; the under surface is whitish, somewhat sparingly marked with 
irregular dusky bars (cf, Q, Macassar, 15. IX. 95, P. & F. 8.). 
Measurements (15 specimens not including young ones). Wing 144 — 157, average about 150 mm; 
tail c. 80; tarsus c. 25 — 28; bill from nostril c. 10.5 — 12 (N. & 8. Celebes and Grt. 
Sangi — Mus. Dresden and Sarasin Coll.). 
Skeleton. S. mrmadensis 8. rutilus (Madagascar) 
Greatest breadth of cranium 
. 31.0 mm 
34.0 nun 
Length of humerus 
. 44.5 » 
51 
Length of irlna 
. 47.5 » 
57 
» 
Length of metacarpus. . . 
. 24.5 * 
25 
Length of principal digit 
. 16.8 » 
19 
» 
Length of femur .... 
. 32 » 
35 
» ^ 
Length of tibia 
. 46.5 » 
54 
» 
Length of tarso-metatarsus . 
. 25.0 » 
30 
■» 
Greatest breadth of sternum 
. 17.5 » 
21 
» 
Height of crista stemi . . 
. 5.2 » 
8 
» 
Length of coracoid . . . 
. 20.5 » 
22 
(ex Meyer e XI and Milne-Edw. & Grandid., Hist. Xat. Madag. 1876, XIII, 
jfl. 40 A, and texte 1879, XH, 134.) 
Distribution. Celebes : — Minahassa (Q. & G. a I, Forsten e 2, Meyer c 4, etc.); Macassar 
(Wallace c 2, e TV, P. & F. Sarasin); Kandari, 8. E. Peninsula (Beccari e 6)’, — 
Siao (v. Duivenbode e 8)\ Great Sangi (Meyer e 8, Platen e 10). 
The specimen from Siao in the Leyden Museum, the only one as yet known from 
that island, is smaller than any specimen as yet recorded from Celebes and Sangi, viz: wing 126 
(4 in. 9 lines French), measured straight wflth compasses, Schlegel’s usual method, as against 
144 mm (measured over the wing) of the smallest spechuen in the Dresden Museum, being 
1 8 mm smaller. 8. manademis, however, varies in size and it occurs in Great Sangi, between 
w'hich island and Celebes Siao lies, so that it is rather more probable than not, that the 
tjqie of 8. skioensis comes within the limits of variation of size characteristic to the species. 
A greater amount of variation in size is shown amongst specimens of 8 . leucospila of Batchian 
and Halmahera, the wing of the type (Batchian) measures (159 mm) those of three specimens 
from Halmahera in the Dresden Museum measure 192 imn, 191 and 179 (young). 
