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Show 1870.] MR. R. B. SHARPE ON THE GENUS PELARGOPSIS. 61 work mentioned above), under the name oi Proto maraschinii, we find it represented as having the mouth perfectly round, and no appearance is shown of the slit or incision in the lower lip ; neither is there any mention made of this character in his description. The genus Proto is defined by him as a shell having " a round mouth formed by the reunion of the left lip, which, passing circularly to that of the right side, terminates higher up towards the middle of the last whorl." It is also described as having the lower part of each whorl with a raised band round it, as in many of the species of the genus Terebra. The Proto maraschinii is said by him to be recent. The other species which have been referred to this genus are apparently quite different, both in the mouth and the body of the shell, and must be separated from it. They may possibly enter as species into the genus which I have now formed; and it is somewhat remarkable, if so, that no recent species have hitherto been found. However this may be, the name Proto having been previously used by Leach for a crustacean, and since then adopted by several carcinologists, must stand ; and it has the precedence of Defrance's name by ten years. In the same collection of shells made by Captain Knocker two or three specimens of a turritelliform shell occur, which agree in shape and size (about 9 lines long) with the Proto maraschinii as figured by Defrance. They are, however, so worn and rubbed, that it is impossible to ascertain exactly their identity. I may also remark that a species of shell, Cardita ajar, occurring in the same collection (from the Bight of Benin) is likewise found fossil in the Miocene formation in Europe. 4. O n the Genus Pelargopsis, Gloger. By R. B. SHARPE. In pursuance of the plan I before proposed to myself, of laying before the Society short synopses of the various genera of Kingfishers which are more or less obscure, I have now the pleasure of submitting a review of the genus Pelargopsis, or Stork-billed Kingfishers. By most authors these Kingfishers have been included in the genus Halcyon; but in m y opinion they are more closely allied to Ceryle, to the larger members of which latter genus they bear unmistakable affinity. There is probably no group in the whole family of the " Alcedinidae " which is involved in greater confusion than the present genus, consequent, apparently, on the close affinity of one species to another, and on the refusal of ornithologists to grant, specific rank to the various well-characterized races of the brown-capped section of the genus, and likewise from the wrong identifications of the species of the older authors. I have endeavoured in the present paper to dispel the existing confusion; and by treating the various so-called "races" as good species, which, in my humble opinion, they decidedly constitute, a much clearer idea of the genus Pelargopsis may be arrived at. |
