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Show 1873.] OF THE ETHIOPIAN REGION. 613 Adult. Above cinereous, glossed with metallic green, the head conspicuously crested ; secondaries metallic green, shading into bluish at the tips; the primaries deep metallic blue, externally shaded with purple; tail purplish blue, the two centre feathers with a slight greenish shade, all the others tipped with white, the outermost more broadly ; throat and sides of the face clear cinereous ; fore neck and chest lilac rufous shading into ochre on the breast; rest of under surface white, washed with yellowish on the sides of the body and under tail-coverts ; " orbital space violet-blue, sky-blue at external margin ; tarsi grey; iris red" (Grandidier). Total length 15 inches, culmen 0*9, wing 5*8, tail 8*5, tarsus 1*7. Hab. N.W. Madagascar (Pollen and Van Dam) ; Nossi-be (Von der Deck en). 2. SERICOSOMUS PYROPYGUS. Coua pyropyga, Grand. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1867, p. 86. Closely allied to S. cristatus, but having the under tail-coverts in the adult of a very pronounced tawny colour, and having the white terminal band on the tail double as broad as in true $. cristatus. Hab. South-western Madagascar. This bird I saw in the Leiden Museum; and it seemed to m e to be quite a good species. M. Grandidier says that the colour of the under tail-coverts, though apparently a slight, is quite a constant character; and the parts of the island where the birds live are different. The Leiden specimen measured :-Total length 13*5 inches, culmen 0*95, wing 6'7, tail 8*0, tarsus 1*55. It appeared also to me to be of a paler and much more delicate bluish grey above. 3. SERICOSOMUS CURSOR. Coua cursor, Grand. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1867, p. 86 (descr. orig.) et p. 391 ; Gray, Hand-1. ii. p. 208 (1867). Upper parts of a greenish ash-colour ; throat ochraceous ; breast lilac; abdomen whitish; under tail-coverts greyish; lateral tail-feathers white at their extremity ; tarsi iron-grey ; bare skin round the eye blue, inclining to violet at the external angle (Grandidier). Hab. South coast of Madagascar ; Cap Sainte-Marie and Machi-kora (Grandidier). I have never seen this species, the affinities of which were not indicated by the original describer. It is possible therefore that I have not placed it correctly in the synopsis. 4. SERICOSOMUS GIGAS. Coucou verdatre de Madagascar, Montb. Pl. Enl. vi. pl. 815 (1783). Cuculus gigas, Bodd. Tabl. d. Pl. Enl. p. 50 (1783). Cuculus madagascariensis, G m . S. N. i. p. 416 (1788). Coccyzus virescens, Bonn, et Vieill. Enc. Meth. iii. p. 1349 (1823). Coccyzus madagascariensis, Temm. Tabl. Meth. p. 63 (1836). Coua gigas, Gray, Gen. B. ii. p. 454 (1846); id. Hand-1. B. ii. p. 208 (1870). |