OCR Text |
Show 70 DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE GENUS ORCA. [Jan. 27, death will not fail to be regarded by every one as a most serious to the cause of African ornithology. CAMPEPHAGA ANDERSSONI, sp. n. (Plate IV.) C. supra pulchre cinerea, uropygio paullo pallidiore ; remigibus cinerascentibus, secundariis externe cinereo lavatis et gracillime albo marginatis ; rectricibus mediis cinereis, reliquis nigris terminatis, duobus extimis albo marginatis : fronte basali et oculari albis, loris nigricantibus: subtus purissime alba, gutture circumscriqjte pallide cinereo. Long. tot. 9 poll. Angl., al. 5*4. Hab. in terra Damarensi. Above delicate grey, a little lighter on the rump; wing-coverts uniform with the back ; quills ashy brown, exteriorly margined with white; the outer web of the inner secondaries light grey, the innermost secondaries being entirely of this colour ; tail black, narrowly tipped with white, the two middle feathers ashy grey, with obscure cross markings in some lights, the outer rectrix having the outer web white ; the base of the forehead and the feathers in front of and round the eye white ; the space between the base of the bill and the eye black ; the entire under surface of the body pure white, the throat with a crescent-like band of clear grey, cutting off the chin from the breast, both of these being pure white; bill and feet black. Total length 9 inches, of bill from front 0*7, wing 5*4, tail 4*7, tarsus 0*85. Hab. Ovaquenyama, Damara Land, June 25th, 1867 (C. J. Andersson ; spec, in mus. R. B. S.). Besides an apparent difference in the extent of white on the exterior tail-feathers, this new species seems at once to be distinguished from Campephaga frenata by the colour of the throat, which in this latter species, according to Dr. Hartlaub's description (/. ci), is entirely obscure greyish ashy. G. Notes on the Skulls of the Genus Orca in the British Museum, and notice of a Specimen of the Genus from the Seychelles. By Dr. J. E. G R A Y , F.R.S. Mr. Swinburne Ward has kindly sent a very beautiful skull of a " Killer " taken in the sea near the Seychelles Islands. To determine this skull I have been induced to compare the skulls of the genus in the British Museum, which it is very necessary to do from time to time* as specimens gradually accumulate, and often arrive when I am occupied on other subjects, and consequently are put aside for future examination. In this examination I have observed that in the ' Catalogue of Seals and Whales' I have confounded the skull described under the name of Orca capensis with one from the North Pacific, the former being the true Orca capensis, and the skull now received from the Sev-chelles Islands being of the same species. |