130 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1883. 



type specimen of Verreaux, but is much more nearly like ^aui- 

 gastra Swains. 



Depending on this description, R, Bowdler Sharpe gives it in 

 his Catalogue of the Birds in the Collection of the British Museum, 

 instead of that of Verreaux, and. in consequence, considers H, 

 violacea as a doubtful species. 



With the privilege of examination of the type, and of comparing 

 this with the DuChaillu specimen, and the descriptions of Verreaux, 

 Strickland and Hartlaub, it seems impossible to suppose that the 

 specimen sent by M. Anchieta to Prof. Bocage, was that of a true 

 violacea, but was either H. Jlavigaetra, or a form intermediate 

 between the two. 



The striking differences between the two species, are the blue- 

 black plumage in the upper parts in flavigastra, and the violet- 

 black of violacea ; the broad bands of white on the wing of the 

 former, and the concentrated spot on that of the latter; the darker 

 shade of the under parts m flavigastra ; and the white thighs of 

 the one and the black of the other, together with the larger size 

 of violacea. They also inhabit different regions, fiavigastra 

 belonging to the N. E, of Afiica and Senegambia, while violacea 

 is found southward from the Gaboon to Benguela in "V^est Africa. 



Swainson points out the general resemblance of Hyliota to the 

 African todies of the genus Flatystira, and to the Old World fly- 

 catchers of Muscicapa, with a bill so much lengthened and com- 

 pressed on the sides that at first sight it might be mistaken for a 

 Sylvia. 



It also agrees with Muscicapa and Crypfolopha in having the 

 base of the bill broad and depressed as far as the nostrils, and 

 then compressed to the extremity, the bill being so much length- 

 ened in Hyliota that it becomes the tenuirostral form of the group 

 to which it belongs. 



The glossy blue-black plumage, white wings and buff throat are 

 in unison with related fly -catchers. By the rump feathers Swainson 

 detects an analogy with the caterpillar-catchers of the Ceblepyrinse. 



In Hyliota the sexes differ remarkably in color, as they do also 

 in Platystira, such difference not being the rule in the family of 

 the Muscicapidae. Hyliota agrees with the fly-catchers in general 

 by its small and weak feet and its syndactyle toes, the outer being 

 connected with the middle as far as the first joints. The wings 

 and tail are those of Muscicapa, in which group Hyliota is placed 

 by ornithologists. 



