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Show 880.] MR. R. TRIMEN ON A NEW LANIARIUS. 623 5. On an undescribed Laniarius from the Interior of Southern Africa.-By ROLAND TRIMEN, F.L.S., F.Z.S. etc. Curator of the South-African Museum, Cape Town. [Received November 16, 1880]. (Plate LIX.) The skin which I now exhibit to the Society formed part of the collection of Dr. B. F. Bradshaw, from which the Trustees of the South-African Museum obtained the fine Roller (Coracias spatulatus, mihi), described in the Society's ' Proceedings' for 1880, pp. 31-33. As was the case with the bird just mentioned, only one example of this peculiar form oi Laniarius was contained in the collection brought by Dr. Bradshaw to Cape Town; and it is so thoroughly like L. atrococcineus (Burchell) in every respect but the very striking difference in the colour of the underparts, that I was much disposed to regard it as a singular "sport" of BuiclieH's well-known species, and thought it well to refrain from describing it as new until I could obtain the opinion of practised ornithologists on the subject. I find that opinion to be rather against m y suggestion that the rich orange-yellow in this skin might be only a solitary individual aberration from the crimson of L. atrococcineus; and I therefore submit to the Society the following description of the specimen in question, which has been added to the collection of the South-African Museum. LANIARIUS ATROCROCEUS, sp. nov. (Pl. LIX.) Entire upper surface (including that of wings and tail), together with sides of head and neck, glossy black shot with a steel-blue lustre: under surface throughout, from base of bill to under tail-coverts, rich yellow, with a surface-tint of warm orange; rump irregularly varied with numerous whitish-tipped feathers ; middle upper wing-coverts and external borders of outer webs of three last secondaries pure white, forming a continuous longitudinal wing-stripe; all quill-feathers dull fuscous beneath, paler towards their bases ; under wing-coverts dull blackish, irregularly flecked with whitish ; tail beneath not so black as above, and without steel-blue lustre. " Bill and legs black; iris lavender'' (B. F. Bradshaw). Total length 8 in. 3 lin.; length of culmen 8 lin. ; of folded wing 3 in. 6 lin., of tail 3 in. 10 lin., of tarsus 1 in. 3 lin. Beyond the very conspicuous difference in the colour of the underparts, I have not found in this skin any characters to separate it from L. atrococcineus except its rather smaller dimensions. Burchell's bird is very frequently met with from the northern border of the Cape Colony far into the interior; and Dr. Bradshaw told me that it occurred in the same district as the curious bird now under notice. The latter was the only example seen by Dr. Bradshaw, |