Mr. p. L. Sclater on the Genus Cosmetoruis. 115 



is one example of it in the British Museum, and another in Sir 

 William Jardine^s collection. The latter specimen was taken 

 on board a vessel in the Mozambique channel ; and, curiously 

 enough, an example of this same species, presented to me by 

 Mr. Edmund Gabriel, which I exhibited before the Zoological 

 Society* in 1861, had been obtained in the same way in a ship 

 off the west coast of Africa. Among the birds from the South 

 African Museum, examined and reported upon by Dr. Hartlaub 

 in the fourth volume of this Journal f, was likewise a young 

 male example of this species, said to have been collected in 

 Damara-land by Mr. Andersson. 



My friend Captain J. H. Speke, during his recent success- 

 ful expedition through Eastern Africa, met with this curious 

 Goatsucker in Uganda, and brought home one not very perfect 

 specimen, which forms the subject of the accompanying Plate by 

 Mr, Wolf. I was at first inclined to consider Captain Speke's 

 bird referable to a different local variety from the true Cosme- 

 tornis vexillarius of Mr. Gould, as, instead of the long " standard 

 feather " being white all along the inner web, it is of a nearly 

 uniform darkish brown thi-oughout. But it would seem that 

 Captain Speke's specimen is not quite adult, and that this feather 

 (which is an ornament of the adult male) may probably change 

 colour. Moreover, as Mr. Gould's type was obtained on the east- 

 ern coast of Africa, it is very improbable that two representative 

 species should be found within the same area. 



Captain Speke tells me that he shot this bird flying, after 

 nightfall, at Urondogami, north of Lake Nyanza, in Uganda. 

 He saw others flying backwards and forwards, and often alight- 

 ing on the bare grovind in the cleared patches near the villages, 

 whence they flew off again when disturbed. 



In the 'Annals of Natural History' for 1862 (vol. x. p. 445) 

 Mr. G. R. Gray has described a second species of Cosmetornis 

 from Western Africa, under the name C. burtoni. The single 

 typical specimen of this species is in an imperfect state. It ap- 

 pears to differ from Cosmetornis vexillarius chiefly in the amount 

 of white upon the primaries. 



* See P. Z. S. 18G1, p. 44. f See Ibis, 1862, p. 143. 



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