THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
resident birds, often confined to a small tract of country, where they find 
suitable caves for breeding, and may therefore readily form local races ; on 
the other hand, their power of flight is so great that the occurrence of any 
species far from their regular abode is by no means astonishing.” 
Two species were there admitted as Australian : Gollocalia francica, of 
of which Ramsay’s Cypselus terrceregince was considered a synonym ; and 
Gollocalia esculenta, on the strength of three skins from “ Cape York, Austr. 
(J. T. Cockerill).” I will deal with the latter item hereafter. 
The present species was not recorded from Austraha until last year, 
when I recognised a bird collected by Robin Kemp at Cape York as referable 
to this species. I have written a short account of this species in the Emu^ Vol. 
XVI., p. 181, 1917, and here give fuller details of the systematic subdivision of 
the species. Thus, in the Gatalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, Vol. 
XVI., p. 500, 1892, Hartert wrote : “ This bird has a very wide range and forms 
several local races. There is no difference between the birds from the Malay 
Archipelago and the so-caUed G. unicolor from the Nilgherries. The birds from 
the Eastern Himalayas and Manipur differ so much from those of the Nilgherries 
that they are considered by several ornithologists to constitute a distinct species ; 
but, after having compared large series from aU locahties, it is evident that 
intermediate forms occur, and therefore it is not possible to allow it more 
than subspecific rank. The birds from Negros in the Phifippines are very 
black and glossy above and average a little shorter, so that they seem to 
constitute a good race, but the bird from the Astrolabe Range is exactly similar. 
The specimens from Celebes have generally rather short wings, but this 
character is not quite constant and does not seem sufficiently obvious to 
justify the formation of even a distinct race.” Such was the view taken by 
a splitter twenty-five years ago. 
In 1906 Oberholser revised the group and allowed three subspecies and a 
different species. Six years afterwards he returned to the subject and in Proc. 
U.S. Nat. Mus., Vol. XLII., pp. 11-20, March 6, 1912, extended the number of 
forms to ten, ranking the different species above named as a subspecies only. 
He observed : “ The range of Gollocalia fuciphaga, as a species, is extensive. 
It occurs west to the Himalaya Mountains at about 76° east longitude; 
north to Central China, the Philippine Islands, Mariana Islands, and the 
Carohne Islands ; east to the Duke of York Island (Union group) and the 
Tonga Islands ; south to the Loyalty Islands, New Guinea, Java, Nias and the 
Seychelles Islands. It seems to be a permanent resident throughout its range. 
Although the differences between the several races are apparently slight, they 
are reasonably constant, for individual variation is not great. As is the case 
with the other species of the genus, there is practically no sexual difference 
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