CALORNIS GULARIS, Gray. 
Purple-throated Glossy Starling 1 . 
Calornis gularis, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, pp. 431, 436. — Id. Hand-list of Birds, ii. p. 27, no. 6385 (1870). — 
Walden, Trans. Zool. Soc. viii. p. 80 (1872). — Sharpe, Ibis, 1876, p. 47. — Rosenb. Malay. Arch. p. 395 
(1879). — Forbes, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1884, p. 433. — Id. Nat. Wand. East. Arch. p. 365 (1885). 
Calornis metallica, Sclater, Proc. Zocl. Soc. 1883, p. 51 (nec Teinm.). 
Calornis circumscripta , Meyer, Sitz. u. Abhandl. Gesellsch. Isis, 1884, Abth. i. p. 49. — Salvad. Proc. Zool. Soc. 
1884, p. 579. 
In the year 1861 the late Mr. G. R. Gray described a Glossy Starling, under the name of Calornis gularis , 
which had been sent by Mr. A. R. Wallace from the island of Mysol. The type specimen is still in the 
British Museum and has been variously referred by ornithologists to Calornis metallica or to a separate 
and distinct species. In 1872 the late Marquis of Tweeddale spoke of the species as “apparently 
nothing but C. metallica but in a small review of the genus published by us in 1876 we ventured to differ 
from Lord Tweeddale, and affirmed that C. gularis was a distinct species, recognizable by its small bill and 
purple throat. Count Salvador!, on the other hand, who examined the type specimen, which still remained 
unique in the British Museum, did not hesitate to unite it to C. metallica ; and when Mr. Forbes’s specimens 
arrived from Timor Laut, Dr. Sclater identified them as belonging to the last-named species. Dr. Meyer, 
however, having received some more specimens from Timor Laut, forwarded by Mr. Riedel, considered the 
Calornis from this group of islands to be distinct from C. metallica , and described it as C. circumscripta ; and in 
this view he has been upheld by Count Salvadori, who does not agree with Mr. Forbes in calling the bird 
from Timor Laut Calornis gularis. Mr. Forbes has published his reasons for considering C. circumscripta of 
Meyer to be synonymous with C. gularis of Gray, and he submitted his series to our examination and for 
exact comparison with the type of C. gularis. So convinced were we of the correctness of his identification, 
that we agreed to figure the latter species from a pair of Mr. Forbes’s Timor-Laut skins, and since 
then Dr. Meyer has lent us some of the typical examples of his C. circumscripta. These, however, only 
confirm the correctness of Mr. Forbes’s identification ; and we are perfectly certain that if Dr. Meyer and 
Count Salvadori could re-examine the type of C. gularis, they would both be convinced of the absolute 
identity of C. circumscripta. The type of C. gularis is labelled by Mr. Wallace, and the locality is in his own 
handwriting, so that it is unlikely that a mistake in the habitat of the species has been made ; but we agree 
with Count Salvadori that it is curious that the same species should inhabit Mysol and Timor Laut, “ so far 
apart one from the other, while true C. metallica lives in so many islands lying between them.” 
The figures in the Plate represent the male and female of about the natural size ; they have been drawn 
from a pair of birds procured in Timor Laut by Mr. Forbes. 
[R. B. S.] 
