4. COEACIAS. 23 



Coracias dispar, Bocage, Jorn. Lisb. 1880, p. 227. 



Coracias caudata {nee i.), Sharpe in Oates' Matabeh-Land, App. 



Birds, p. 302 (1881 x. pt.), specimen d. 

 Coracias weigalli, Dresser, Ann. ^ Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) vi. p. 351 



(1890). 



Adult male. Light olivaceous brown above, inclining to lilac on 

 the lower back ; rump lilac-blue ; upper tail-coverts purplish blue ; 

 lesser wing-covorts deep purplish blue like the bastard-wing and 

 primary-coverts ; remainder of wing-coverts pale cinnamon washed 

 with reddish lilac, the innermost secondaries of the same colour, 

 but tipped with purplish black ; primaries black, externally purplish 

 blue, and showing a broad basal patch of cobalt ; secondaries cobalt- 

 blue, with a broad terminal band of purplish black ; centre tail- 

 feathers black, the median ones washed with olive-green, the two 

 next washed with purplish blue, the next with a patch of cobalt on the 

 outer web, this occupying the greater part of the two penultimate 

 feathers, while the outermost is cobalt-blue with a black shaft ; the 

 end of the tail black and produced, ending in a small racket ; lores 

 and eyebrow white ; sides of face and entire under surface of body 

 pale greenish blue. Total length 13'5 inches, culmen 1*25, wing 

 6'4, tail 5"2, longest tail-feather 7'5, tarsus 0"75. 



Adult female. Similar to the female. Total length 14 inches, 

 culmen 1"1, wing 6'45, tail 4-9, tarsus 0*7. 



A younger bird, identified by me as C. caudata in Oates' ' Mata- 

 bele-Land,' has the sides of the face and the sides of the chest lilac- 

 brown streaked with white. The throat, however, is bluish, the 

 primary-coverts are purplish blue, and concealed by the under tail- 

 coverts is the spatulated outer feather just beginning to appear. 



During my recent visit to Berlin, Dr. Eeichenow and I carefully 

 examined the series of Eacket-tailed Rollers in the Museum there, 

 and we were perfectly agreed in considering the specimens Avith the 

 lilac on the sides of the face and chest to be immature birds. 

 Canon Tristram has kindly lent me the type of C. iveif/alli from 

 his collection, and, notwithstanding that it has the appearance 

 of being fully adult, I believe that it is really only an immature 

 individual. 



Hah. Makalaka country in S.E. Africa to Lake Tanganyika and 

 Ugogo, west to Benguela. 



a. $ imm. sk. Pantanatenka Eiver, Jan. (F. W. E. & C G. Oates, 



Oates). Esqrs. [P.]. 



b. cJ ad. fik. Umvuli Ptiver, Aug. 2 (J. S. Shelley Coll. 



Jameson). 



c. Ad. sk. Ugogo {Emin Pasha). Berlin Museum [P.]. 



d. $ ad. sk. Caconda, Benguela {J. An- Lisbon Museum [P.J. 



chieta). 



