1883.] NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 129 



bird is interesting as affording a second species of a genus of 

 which one specimen onl}-, the R. flavigastra, Swains., of Senegal, 

 was hitherto known. It much resembles H.Jlavigastra, but differs 

 in its broader beak, and the less extent of white on the wing. 

 Whole upper parts black with a steel-blue gloss, of a rather more 

 purple hue than in flavigastra. Three or four of the greater 

 wing coverts next the body arc white (in flavigastra the whole of 

 the middle, and the basal half of the greater coverts are white). 

 Lower parts pale cream-color. 



Total length 5 ; beak to front 5 ; to gape 7 ; broad '2^; wing 

 o ; medial retrices 1 and 9 ; exteinal 2 ; tarsus 7." 



Of Hyliota violacea, as above described, the Academy possesses 

 two specimens. One is the identical bird on which the species 

 was founded by Yerreaux, and its characters agree with the 

 description of that author, as well as with that of Strickland, and 

 also with that to be found in Hartlaub's Ornithologie Westafricas, 

 Bremen, 1857, p. 98. 



The second specimen in possession of the Academy, belongs to 

 the Du Chaillu 1st Coll., and is also from the River Gaboon. 

 This bird is mentioned in Cassin's Catalogue, Proc. Acad, of Nat. 

 Sciences, 1869, p. 51, but no description is given. Essentiall}- its 

 characters are the same as the tj'pe specimen of Verreaux. 



In this species, the only white to be seen on the whole wing is 

 on one single feather belonging to the inner portion of the greater 

 coverts. There are really about five feathers belonging to the 

 series of ornamental coverts, but the}' overlie each other, and are 

 so disposed that in the closed wing only one of them is visible. 



The rump in both species is covered with long, loose, silk}'- 

 feathers, of a white or grayish white color, from the base to near 

 the .tip, when the feather sudclenly becomes dark and at the same 

 time pennaceous in structure. The only difference between the 

 two species appears to be in the depth of the dark margin, or its 

 entire absence in mature specimens of flavigastra. In Swainson's 

 rlescription of the type, the rump is given as pure white, but it is 

 not so in our specimen. The pennaceous dai*k border is nearly as 

 deep as in violacea, so that this character cannot be relied upon 

 as a distinction between the two species. 



In his Ornithology of Angola, p. 190, Prof. Barboza du Bocage 

 acknowledges the receipt from M. Anchieta, of one specimen of 

 H. violacea. The description is that of a bird with a large amount 

 of white on the wing. This description does not resemble the 



