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Show 1890.] GUINEA-FOWL FROM THE ZAMBESI. 87 last, I have taken considerable trouble to find a correct name for but as yet, I regret to say, not quite successfully. It belongs, as will be observed, to a species allied to N. cristata, oi which I have examined a fine skin kindly lent to me by Mr. Biittikofer and obtained by that gentleman in Liberia in 1880. It agrees generally with N. cristata in its spotted body, white-edged primaries, broad black ring round the neck, and crested head. But it seems to differ from N. cristata in having a conspicuous fold of naked skin at the back of the neck of a pale yellowish-grey colour, the naked skin on the throat not red but leaden-grey, and a slightly feathered chin. The representative of N. cristata on the eastern coast of Africa is commonly supposed to be N. edouardi, Hartlaub, of which N. verreauxi, Elliot, is a synonym (cf. Sclater, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 496). Mr. Elliot, in his ' Monograph of the Phasianidse,' it is true, refers N. edouardi to N. cristata, and makes N. verreauxi different. But it appears that the specimen in the Paris Museum, mentioned by Mr. Elliot (' Ibis,' 1870, p. 300) as an example of his N. verreauxi, is the identical specimen upon which Dr. Hartlaub established his N. edouardi1. Therefore, I hold N. verreauxi to be =N. edouardi. But I am unable to say positively whether N. edouardi is distinct from N. cristata, as also to which species the Zambesi bird should be referred. One of the types of N. verreauxi (formerly living in the Jardin d'Acclimatation, Paris, and subsequently in this Society's Gardens2) is now in the British Museum. I have examined this specimen and have compared it with Mr. Reid's bird now before us. 1 have also examined the other specimens of the same form of Guinea-fowl in the National Collection, and have quite satisfied myself that Mr. Reid's bird is identical with a specimen obtained on the Zambesi by Dr. Kirk. But according to Mr. Elliot his N. verreauxi (i. e. N. edouardi) had when living a " very conspicuous red throat " 3, of which, indeed, there are also some indications in the type specimen of that species now in the British Museum ; but this was certainly not the case in the Zambesi bird when alive. I must therefore leave the question of the exact name of the Zambesi Guinea-fowl unsettled, but I claim to have established the following point satisfactorily :- The Numida of the Zambesi referred by Capt. Sperling (' Ibis,' 1868, p. 291), by Mr. Elliot (Mon. Phas. ii. sub tab. xlvi.), and by Mr. Sharpe (B. S. Afr. p#. 586) to N. pucherani is not that species, but a species more nearly allied to N. cristata, and possibly =N. edouardi, Hartl., if the latter is really different from N. cristata. The figure (Plate XII.) represents the head of the Zambesi Guinea-fowl, taken from a sketch made by Mr. Smit of the living bird. 1 See also my remarks on this point, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 496. 2 See List of Vert. An. 1883, p. 495. 3 Ibis, 1870, p. 300. |