120 TIMELIID^ 



the back ; priinarj'-covorts darker brown, edged with olive ; quills 

 brown, externally ashy olive ; tail-feathers brown, washed with 

 olive on the outer web, the centre of the feathers darker brown ; 

 lores, feathers in front of the eye, and eyelid white ; ear-coverts 

 ashy ; cheeks and under surface of body white, ashy on the sides of 

 the breast and flanks, the latter washed with brown as also the 

 thighs externally ; under tail-coverts yellowish white or pale 

 fulvous ; axillaries and under wing-coverts white, with a dusky spot 

 near the edge of the wing ; quills ashy below, whitish along the edge 

 of the inner web. Total length 6 inches, culmen 0'55, wing 2"1, 

 tail 3-15, tarsus 0-8. (Mus. R. G. Wanllaw liamsai/.) 

 Hah. Dobri, Lower liengal. 



14. ELLISIA. „ 



Type. 

 Ellisia, Hartlauh, J.f. 0. 18G0, p. O-} E. typica. 



Range. Confined to Madagascar. 



Messrs. Milne-Edwards and Grandidier, in their great work on 

 the Natural History of Madagascar, enter at some length into the 

 question of Ellisia typica and its races. They point out that in 

 Madagascar the fauna of the eastern part of the island, where the 

 countrj' is mountainous and the climate wet, is different from that 

 of the lower and dryer western side, and that variations in the 

 plumage of Ellisia take place according to locality : three forms are 

 recognizable ; but, as intermediate specimens occur, Grandidier con- 

 cludes that they cannot be reckoned as species, but merely as races. 

 I follow him in the present work ; but have to state that E. lantzi 

 occurs in Ankafaua along with true E. tyjpica. 



1. Ellisia typica. 



Ellisia typica, HaHl. J. f. 0. 18G0, p. 92 ; id. Beitr. Faun. Madaq. p. 37 

 (1861) ; E. Neiotun, Ibis, 1863, p. 343, pi. xiii. (egg) ; Sclater, P. Z. S. 

 1863, p. 162 ; Verr. in Vinson's Voy. Madag., Ann.B. p. 2 (1865) ; 

 A. Neivt. P. Z. S. 18G5, p. 835 ; Grand. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1867, 

 p. 358 ; Gray, Hand-l. B. i. p. 202, no. 2845 (1869) ; Sha,-pe, 

 P. Z. S. 1870, p. .391 ; id. Cat. Afr. B. p. 32 (1871) ; Bartl. P. Z. S. 

 1875, p. 65 ; Hartl. Vog. Madag. p. 113 (1877). 



Drymoica morelii, Gray, Hand-l. B. i. p. 198, no. 2748 (1869, ex 

 Pollen MSS.). 



Ellisia madagascariensis tvpica, Milne-Edwards 6f Grandid. in 

 Grandid. Hist. Nat. Madag., Ois. p. .329, pis. 127, 128 a, 129 

 (1881). 



Adalt. General colour above dingy olive-brown, slightly clearer 

 olive- brown on the rump and upper tail-coverts ; wing-coverts like 

 the back ; quills brown, externally olive-brown like the back ; tail- 

 feathers brown, narrowly margined with olive-brown, the outer 



