CALORNIS GULARIS, Gray.

Purple-throated Glossy Starling.

Calornis gularis, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, pp. 431, 436.—Id. Hand-list of Birds, Te 2 7eemOmOS SON CLS) mee
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 Temm.).

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 Culornis 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 ina small review of the genus published by us in 1876 we ventured to differ
from Lord Tweeddale, and affirmed that C. gudaris was a distinct species, recognizable by its small bill and
purple throat. Count Salvadori, 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 bas 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. ctrcumscripta. 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. cixeumscripta. 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.
tee issnSs|

 

 

xy

 

 

SS aoe

>

rb Fem

a

eh FT

AW 4 oy

rm :
sO