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Show 1871.] MR. R. B. SHARPE ON BIRDS FROM MADAGASCAR. 319 lores and cheeks greyish white; entire back black; wing-coverts black, a few of the lesser ones tipped with greyish white, the greater ones externally margined with white towards the tip, forming a very broad alar bar; one of the feathers slightly tipped with rufous; primary coverts black; quills blackish, the primaries externally margined near their base with fulvous white, merging into grey; two of the dorsal secondaries externally margined with white; tail grey for the basal and black for the apical half, all the feathers tipped with white; a collar round the back of the neck and the under surface of the body grey, becoming white on the throat and lower abdomen ; thighs grey; under wing- and tail- coverts white. Another specimen is very similar to the one above described, but has all the fore part of the head greyish white, the shafts of the feathers only being marked with black ; the collar round the neck and under surface of the body are clearer grey; and most of the secondaries are edged with white, some of them very conspicuously. This species must be some little time attaining the full plumage. 49. VANGA RUFA. Artamia rufa (Gm.); Hartl. Faun. Madag. p. 48 (1861); A. Newt. P. Z. S. 1865, p. 835; Verr. in Vins. Voy. Madag. Ann. B. p. 2 (1865). Pachycephala rufa, Schl. & Poll. Faun. Madag. Ois. p. 86, pl. 26 (1868). "Saralalan." This bird appears to me to be a small species of Vanga, differing only in the bill being a little less compressed. It certainly is not a true Pachycephala, in which genus Professor Schlegel has placed it; nor is it an Artamia, as it differs at once from this genus by the position of the nostrils, which in Artamia are placed far beyond the plumes and are unprotected; whereas in Vanga the nostrils are thickly protected with bristles, and are placed at the base of the frontal plumes. The shape of the bill also in the two genera is quite different. Family PLOCEID_E. 50. F O U D I A MADAGASCARIENSIS. Foudia madagascariensis, L.; Hartl. Faun. Madag. p. 55 ; Roch & E. Newt. Ibis, 1862, p. 275; E. Newt. Ibis, 1863, p. 350; A. Newt. P. Z. S. 1865, p. 836 ; Verr. in Vins. Voy. Madag. Ann. B. p. 2 (1865); Grand. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1867, p. 388 ; Sharpe, Cat. Afr. B. p. 62 (1871). Ploceus madagascariensis, Schl. & Poll. Faun. Madag. Ois. p. 109 (1868). Several specimens in Mr. Crossley's last collection. Family RALLID_E. 51. P O R Z A N A PYGM-EA. Porzana pygmcea (Naum.); Hartl. Faun. Madag. p. 81 (1861) |