Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra85861922roya).pdf/273

 Since describing in this Journal the two Bornean skins as a new subspecies, Mydaus javanensis montanus, I have examined a third imperfect skin from the Sarawak Museum. It was obtained from the Kalabits of the ulu Baram and almost certainly comes from the same locality as the other two. Unfortunately the Kalabits have made it up as a seat-mat for their own use and consequently cut it down considerably; only the back remains, the head, legs and tail having been cut off. It measures 19 inches by 10 at the widest part. A comparison of the whitish dorsal marking shows that it must have been similar in size to the other two. The white streak is 3 inches across at the widest, then narrows abruptly and breaks off completely for 3 inches before continuing as a very thin line for another 4 inches, after which it widens to the extent of 2 inches across the lumbar region.

The length of the skin from the widest part of the dorsal streak between the shoulders to the root of the tail is 16 to 17 inches in all three skins.

The skin representing the Type of this new subspecies has been deposited in the British Museum. The second and third skins remain in the Raffles Museum, Singapore, and the Sarawak Museum respectively. No others are as yet known.



 A Rail New to the Malay Peninsula.

While arranging and naming the collection of Bird skins which have accumulated in the Raffles Museum during the last thirty years, an interesting discovery by which another species is added to the list of Birds known to occur in the Malay Peninsula was made by Mrs. Horton, who has already done much valuable work on the bird collections of this Museum. Among the mass of unidentified material stored away was the skin of a Rail bearing the following label: "Kotta Tinggi, Johore. Dec. 18th 1892. Sex female." This skin proved to be that of Elwes' Crake, (Porzona bicolor Walden).

This Crake was first procured by Captain Elwes in the interior of Sikkim at an elevation of 5,000 feet, in September 1870. Godwin-Austen found it in rice-fields about 5,000 feet up in the Khasi Hills in the month of June. Hume says he is sure he saw this species below Hoondoong at a height of 3,500 feet. It was obtained later by Collingwood Ingram in 1906 in the Lichiang Valley, West Yunnan, South China.