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Show 1878.] MR. H. SEEBOHM ON SYLVIA BLANFORDI. 979 Zool. of Abyss, p. 379) a single specimen of Sylvia melanocephala, Gm., shot at Rairo in Habab. W e learn from the personal narrative that Blanford was at Rairo between the 1 Oth and 15th of August. The skin, doubtless obtained between these two dates, is in the British Museum, and appears to me to belong to a hitherto undescribed species, which I propose to call SYLVIA BLANFORDI. The general colour of the upper parts is brown, the innermost secondaries, the quills, and the wing-coverts being narrowly margined with brownish white. The cheeks, head, and nape are brownish black. The tail is very dark brown, the outside tail-feathers (which are much abraded) showing traces of having been tipped with white. The general colour of the underparts is white, shading into brown on the sides of the breast, flanks, axillaries, and under tail-coverts. The bastard primary projects *3 inch beyond the primary-coverts ; and the second primary is between the eighth and ninth in length. The bird is moulting some of the primaries between the third and the eighth. Both mandibles of the bill are dark, and the tarsus and feet are dark slate-grey. The wing measures 2*52, and the tail 2*62. The culmen, which is slightly injured, measures about *51 when perfect. The only species with which this bird can be confounded are S. curruca (Linn.), S. melanocephala, Gm., and S. rubescens, Blanf. From S. curruca it is easily distinguished by its head being brownish black instead of pale slate-grey, and by its tail being longer instead of shorter, than its wing. From S. melanocephala it may be distinguished by the length of wing being 2*52, instead of varying from 2*15 to 2*35, and the colour of the tarsus and feet being dark slate-grey instead of brown. Besides being a larger bird with darker feet, it has a larger bastard primary, a shorter second primary, and has less white on the outside tail-feathers. From S. rubescens it may be distinguished by its tail being longer, instead of shorter, than the wing, by its feet being dark slate-grey instead of palish brown, and by its larger size, the less amount of white on the outside feathers of its tail, its longer bastard primary, and more rounded wing. Sylvia blanfordi appears to be quite distinct from any of the birds described by Riippell in his ' Neue Wirbelth. Abyss.', or by Heuglin in his 'Orn. Nordost-Afrika's/and also from the types of Hemprich and Ehrenberg, in the Berlin Museum, described by Dresser and Blanford in the Ibis (1874, p. 335). Another error of identification in Blanford's 'Abyssinia ' will be found on page 358. The skin from Senape in the British Museum, labelled Buticilla phcenicura, Linn., does not belong to that bird, but to the nearly allied species Buticilla mesoleuca, Ehr. I have also examined the Pratincolee from the Abyssinian collection in the British Museum; and Mr. Sharpe has pointed out to me that Pratincola semitorquata, Heugl., is undoubtedly the breeding-plumage of P. albofasciata, Riipp., and that Blanford's skins labelled Pratincola |