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Show 1878.] MR. R. B. SHARPE ON PCEOPTERA LUGUBRIS. 803 soit ou non la lugubris, Miiller;" and I am glad that I followed Hartlaub, and did not alter the name, as I had felt inclined to do. Dr. Briiggemann was also mistaken in supposing that he was the first to inform me of the probable identity of the species described by Cabanis with Bonaparte's Pceoptera lugubris; for I had finished m y synonymy of this bird for my ' Catalogue' long before the casual conversation to which he alludes. After all, however, it appears that both Dr. Briiggemann and myself were wrong in our facts, and Myiopsar cryptopyrrhus of Cabanis is not synonymous with Pceoptera lugubris of Bonaparte. Dr. Peters having very kindly sent m e from Berlin some of the new species of birds lately described by Drs. Cabanis and Reichenow for examination, has added the type of Myiopsar, and asked me to compare it with our examples of Pceoptera lugubris. I am surprised to find it specifically distinct; and so the subjoined modification must take place in the synonymy of the genus as given by me in the ' Catalogue.' Genus POJ.OPTERA. Pceoptera, Bp. Comptes Rendus, xxxviii. p. 381 Type. (1854) P. lugubris. Myiopsar, Cabanis, J. f. O. 1876, p. 93 P. cryptopyrrha. Bange. West Africa, from the Gold Coast to the Congo. Key to the Species. a. Purple; edges of secondaries whity brown, forming a light band down the wing ; inner webs of quills dark brown, scarcely lighter than the outer web P. lugubris. b. Violet-blue with somewhat of a greenish gloss; no whity-brown edges to the wing; quills rufous on the inner web, forming a red lining to the wing P. cryptopyrrha. ] . PffiOPTERA LUGUBRIS. (Plate XLIX.) Pceoptera lugubris, Bp. C. R. xxxviii. p. 381 ; Hartl. Orn. W.-Afr. p. 69 (1857) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. iii. p. 281 (1877). Thamnobia lugubris, Gray, Hand-1. B. i. p. 212 (1869). Pceoptera crptopyrrha, Briigg. Ann. N. H . (4) xx. p. 244 (1877, nee Cabanis). Hab. From the Gold Coast to Gaboon. Since the publication of the Catalogue, I have discovered in the British Museum a third specimen, a male, put away by mistake along with the species of Thamnobia, according to Gray's classification. It was only discovered this month (August 1878), during a re-arrangement of the specimens of Chats. 2. PffiOPTERA CRYPTOPYRRHA. Myiopsar cryptopyrrhus, Cab. J. f. O. 1876, p. 93. Adult male (type of species).-General colour above glossy violet blue, with here and there a slight shade of steel-green; least |
