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Show 502 MR. SHARPE ON MACHIRHAMPHUS ANDERSSONI. [May 16, The Malaccan species coincides with the Damara bird in the form and style of plumage, having the white ring round the eye and the stripe down the throat, but differs in its larger bill, darker colours, brown abdomen, and long occipital crest. There seems, however, to be a difference in the white feathers round the eye. M. anderssoni has a white superciliary line and a white spot below the eye ; M. alcinus has the latter plainly mottled, but has no distinct supercilium, though the feathers round the rim of the eye are whitish. Thus it will be seen that the Damara species must be restored under the name of Machcerhamphus anderssoni, though the genus Stringonyx is not distinct from Machcerhamphus, and thus sinks into a synonym. On the importance of the discovery of a generic form peculiar to Southwestern Africa and Malacca I need scarcely dwell, as this fact will be recognized by all m y hearers. The following is a brief synopsis of the genus as it now stands : - Genus MACH_ERHAMPHUS. m Type. Machcerhamphus, Westerm. Bijd. tot d. Dierk. i. p. 29, pl. 12 (1848) M. alcinus. Stringonyx, Gurney, P. Z. S. 1865, p. 618 M. anderssoni. Claris specierum. a. crista occipitali magna: abdomine brunneo 1. alcinus. b. crista occipitali nulla: abdomine albo 2. anderssoni. 1. MACHIRHAMPHUS ALCINUS. Machcerhamphus alcinus, Westerm. Bijd. tot de Dierk. i. p. 29, pl. 12 (1848); Schl. Handl. tot de Beoef. der Dierk. i. p. 168, pl. 1. fig. 6 (1857); id. Cat. Mus. Pays-Bas, Femes, p. 7 (1862). M. paulo major: nigricanti-brunneus: rostro robustlore : crista occipitali longissima nigricante: regione orbitali albida: macula suborbitali conspicua alba: pectore albo, mento et striga gulari brunneis, plumis gutturalibus nonnullis etiam brunneo variis: pectore imo et abdomine toto nigricanti-brunneo. Hab. Malacca (Maingay). 2. MACHCERHAMPHUS ANDERSSONI. Stringonyx anderssoni, Gurney, P.Z.S. 1865, p. 618. Machcerhamphus alcinus (err.), Bartlett, P. Z. S. 1866, p. 324 ; Gurney, Trans. Zool. Soc. vi. pl. 29 (1869); Gray, Hand-1. of B. i. p. 26 (1869). M . umbrino-brunnea : crista occipitali nulla : supercilio et striga suborbitali albis : abdomine albo, pectore medio brunneo. Hab. Damara Land (Andersson). |