OCR Text |
Show 1874.] THE GENUS SAXICOLA. 233 received distinct names, and appear to us to possess good distinctive characters, we have deemed it best to keep them separate. Mr. Layard only quotes plate 184. fig. 2 of Levaillant; but he describes the young as grey. The specimens which we have identified with S. castor and S. leucomelana have every appearance of being fully mature birds. 25. SAXICOLA ARNOTTI. Saxicola arnotti, Tristr. Ibis, 1869, p. 206, pi. vi. Male. Head and body jet-black, a few white feathers on the crown; forehead and supercilia white, wings blackish brown, shoulders white, tail entirely black. Bill from the gape 0'8, wing 3'9, tail 3, tarsus 1*1. Hab. Adam Kok's N e w Land, S. Africa (teste Layard). W e have not seen a specimen of this species, and copy the above from Mr. Tristram's original description. 26. SAXICOLA LEUCOMELANA. (Plate XXXVII. figs. 1 & 2.) Saxicola leucomelana, Burchell, Travels in S. Afr. vol. i. p. 335, note (1822). Saxicola leucomelana, Strickland & Sclater, Jard. Contr. 1852, p. 146. no. 27. Dromolaa albipileata, Bocage, Jorn. Sc. Lisb. 1867, p- 151. ? Saxicola alpina, Chapman, Travels in S. Afr. App. p. 399 (1868), desc. nulla. Adult male. Head, nape, and hind neck white, with a greyish tinge ; shoulders, rump, and upper tail-coverts, abdomen, and basal portion of all except the two central rectrices white ; thigh-coverts and under tail-coverts mixed white and black ; rest of the plumage black, glossy black on the back and breast, quills brownish black; the black on the sides of the head includes the lores and the feathers immediately above the eye. On the outer tail-feathers the white often extends quite to the tip, a black spot only being left on the outside of each web ; on the outermost tail-feather the black extends much further up the web than on the next two or three. In one specimen the outer tail-feather on each side is pure white, therein agreeing with Professor Barboza du Bocage's description of S. albipileata. Some specimens (? winter plumage) have the head French grey, the feathers having a dark central streak; and in one, which may be immature, the whole abdomen is black. Culmen 0'9, wing 4*2.5, tail 2-85, tarsus \'2. Hab. South Africa, Damara Land. 27. SAXICOLA GRISEICEPS, sp. nov. (Plate XXXVII. fig. 3.) S. capite nuchaque cinereis; humeris, uropygio, supracaudalibus, rectricibus externis omnibus, nisi ad apices, abdomineque albis; collo, dorso, alis, rectricibus mediis, apicibus rectricum catera-rum, loris, regione auriculari, gutture,pectoreque nigris. Culm. long. 0-9, ala 4*4, cauda 2*8, tarsi 1*25. PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1874, No. XVI. 16 |