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Show 1875.] ORNITHOLOGY OF MADAGASCAR. 77 of the body and thighs olive-green; under wing-coverts yellowish buff, the edge of the wing bright yellow ; wings and tail brown, margined with greenish olive, the inner secondaries dull olive-brown, the inner webs fulvescent on their interior margin ; bill horn-brown, the lower mandible yellowish; feet light fleshy brown. Total length 6 inches, culmen 0*6, wing 2*65, tail 2*7, tarsus 0*83. I have already (P. Z. S. 1871, p. 314) referred to M. Jules Verreaux's assurance that Bernieria major and B. minor were sexes ; and of this new species I believe both sexes are represented in the present collection, as the second specimen sent measures as follows : - Total length 6*5 inches, culmen 0*8, wing 2*75, tail 2*7, tarsus 0*87. This species is smaller than B. madagascariensis and is at once distinguished by its brighter colours and yellow eye-ring (whence the specific name). The woodcut (p. 75, figs. 2 and 3) illustrates the peculiar conformation of the eye-ring in this species. Family CORVID^E. E U R Y C E R O S PREVOSTI, Less. ; Hartl. Faun. Madg. p. 59. Mr. Crossley has sent several specimens of this unique and curious form. When in England he assured me that the bill of the living bird was pearly and exactly like the inside of an oyster-shell, fading away soon after death. Family SCOLOPACID^E. TEREKIA CINEREA. Mr. Boucard's collector sent one specimen from the neighbourhood of Tamatave. I do not remember having seen this bird noted as an inhabitant of Madagascar. The following notes refer to species already mentioned by me in former papers. A R T A M I A LEUCOCEPHALA (Gm.) ; Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 318. Mr. Crossley has sent a most instructive series of this species, illustrating the progress from immaturity to the adult stage ; and I therefore give a few remarks on these birds. Artamia bernieri, figured by Schlegel and Pollen, has been stated to be the young of A. leucocephala (cf. P. Z. S. 1871, p. 318) ; but if this be the case it must be the very first plumage ; for the series seems perfectly continuous as represented in Mr. Crossley's collection. Young. Bill yellowish white; general colour ashy grey, with a brown shade on the back : wing-coverts with slight rufous edgings; throat and chest greyish, the latter with narrow dusky cross lines; rest of under surface buff, narrowly waved with dusky grey; under wing-coverts greyish. More adult. Bill a little more dusky whitish ; upper surface greyish, glossed slightly with metallic greenish ; under surface nearly uniform buffy white, shaded with greyish on the throat and sides of the face ; only a faint trace of bars on the flanks. |