Viscount Waldcn on the Muscicapa melanictera. 317 



black ; remainder of the whole upper surface of the body yel- 

 lowish olive-green. Margins of the outer webs of all the wing- 

 feathers more or less of the same colour, the outer edges of the 

 primaries being somewhat yellower. Quills and rectrices hair- 

 brown ; inner margins of all, except the first primary, edged 

 with yellowish-albescent, increasing in extent with every suc- 

 ceeding quill, commencing with the second. Upper surface of the 

 tail brown, as in the quills ; middle rectrices faintly edged with 

 the olive-green of the upper plumage, external pairs more de- 

 cidedly so ; under surface of rectrices pale brown, all with white 

 or albescent terminal bands, the middle pair excepted. Entire 

 under surface rich saffron-yellow, purest on the chin, throat, 

 abdomen, and under tail- and wing-coverts. Wing 3*75 inches ; 

 tail 3'25 inches. Iris brown in the female. Bill and feet black. 

 The upper and under tail-coverts are very much developed ; 

 the first covering fully half the basal portion of the tail, the 

 last extending even further. 



Le Vaillant described his " Cap Negre " from six individuals 

 sent to him from Ceylon ; and the specimens received by me 

 from the same island agree entirely with his description. Al- 

 though the examples were sent to him in the flesh, Le Vaillant 

 tells us that he was unable, on moistening the bodies, to dis- 

 criminate the sexes, in consequence of the decayed condition of 

 the organs. A seventh specimen in the same collection he re- 

 garded as the female, as it only differed from the other six in 

 the shade of its colouring, the head being brown instead of 

 black, the upper plumage isabelline-yellow rather than olive- 

 yellow, the under surface pale yellow ; and also by being some- 

 what smaller in size. These two forms are represented in his 

 plate 140, the colouring of the figures having been either origi- 

 nally very dull or else having since become faded ; the distri- 

 bution of colour is accurately enough given. Upon " Le Cap 

 Negre" Vieillot founded his JEgithina atricapilla, he having 

 instituted the genxis ^githina in the 'Analyse' (1816) for the 

 reception of his Sylvia leucoptera^. In the ' Nouveau Diction- 



* The genus JEgithina would take precedence of lora, Horsf., if it could 

 be satisfactorily demonstrated that the Fauvette leucoptere, Vieill. (Ois. 

 de I'Am. sept.) was based upon a specimen of Motacilla tiphia, L. 



