81 
Dicruridae and their Arrangement. 
space than these limited notes afford to discuss whether con¬ 
venience or accuracy have led to this result.. In a former 
paper (Ibis, 1877, p. 313) a few remarks on the crestless 
races of the genus Dissemurus will be found; and to the con¬ 
clusions there put forward I still adhere; but the discrimina¬ 
tion of the crested species is undoubtedly more difficult, re¬ 
quiring a large number of specimens from all parts of the 
area inhabited to be critically compared before any trust¬ 
worthy conclusions can be arrived at. Excluswe of D. bra- 
chyphoruSy seventeen specimens are catalogued as being con¬ 
tained in the British-Museum collection—material hardly 
adequate when it is considered that some ten species have 
been discriminated by various authors, to which Mr. Sharpe 
has added an eleventh, D. ceylonensis. Any one comparing 
a typical example of D. grandis (Gould)* with one of D. 
malabaricus (Scop.), ex Malabar, would scarcely hesitate to 
consider them as belonging to two very distinct species ; but 
many intervening links occur, such as the true D, paradiseus 
and true D. cristatellus (Blyth), ex Tenasserim, in which 
the frontal crest is not so much developed as in the Nepal, 
nor so little as in the Malabar bird. But the variations 
in structure which diflPerentiate the several local races of 
this genus, although well marked, would require a separate 
paper for their elucidation; and I shall therefore, for the 
present, content myself with pointing out a few errors that 
have inadvertently crept into Mr. Sharpe’s summary of the 
genus. 
D.platurus (Vieill.) is not from Java. Temminck (PI. Col., 
sub Edotius remifer) remarks that Le Vaillant figured (Ois. 
d’Afr. t. 175) the bird brought from Malabar by Sonuerat. 
But whether this be so or not, D. ptaturus is not from Java, 
it being a crestless species. The correct title for the Javan 
species is D. forinosus. Cab., founded on Javan examples, 
which I have examined at Halberstadt. Temminck’s name 
retifer (Sharpe, p. 258, sed lege setifer), adopted by some 
^ D. malaharoides (Hodgs.) of Mr. Sharpe (p. 260), a title published 
one year later. Mr. Gould’s Sumatran species, said to be exactly the 
same, has not since been recognized. 
SER. IV.-VOL. II. 
a 
