384 
Lettersy Announcementsy ^c, 
preserved it in his cabinet/^ The inhabitants of Manilla call 
it Langni-Langnaien/^ Brisson called it Lanius manillensis. 
Now as to his description of the specimen_, which we know 
he had before him; for two asterisks precede the title. He 
says that the head, throat, neck, scapulars, wing-feathers, 
and those of the tail are blackish (‘^‘^noiratres^’ in the French, 
^^nigricantes’^ in the Latin), that is,blackish or swarthy,but not 
jet-black,nor even black. Mr. Sharpe says that the title leu- 
corhynchus cannot be retained for the Philippine bird, as its 
colours are stated to be black and white.^^ They are so 
stated “to be by Sonnerat describing other species, not so, as I 
have shown, by Brisson. Mr. Sharpe goes on to say that the 
question is somewhat complicated by the fact that there are 
certain black-and-white Art ami y such as A, melaleucus and A. 
maoGimuSy but is of opinion that it is highly improbable that 
either of these species formed the subject of Brisson or Son- 
neraPs descriptions.^^ It is not necessary to prove to what 
species SonneraFs type belonged; but it is clear that neither 
of the species above named could have been before Brisson; 
for the first is from New Caledonia, and the other from New 
Guinea, and Brisson describes the colour as being blackishy 
not black. The colouring of many examples of the Phi¬ 
lippine species (and there is only one species known to in¬ 
habit the Philippines) is blackish. Noiratre or nigricans 
are terms which fairly convey the general tone of the dark 
colour of the phase of plumage exhibited by the Philippine 
bird; for, as I have shown elsewhere (P. Z. S. 1877, p. 544), 
Philippine individuals occur wearing a dark smoky-brown 
plumage. We have thus the fact that Brisson circumstan¬ 
tially stated the origin of his type specimen, and that the de¬ 
scription of it given by him is strictly applicable to at least one 
of the styles of colouring which the Philippine bird, as known 
to us, very frequently assumes. It may also be added that 
A. leucorhynchus is one of the commonest and most widely- 
spread birds in the Philippines. Mr. Everett writes that you 
see it everywhere. And although it is unnecessary to resort 
to probabilities, these are enormously on the side of Brisson^s 
specimens having come from Manilla. 
