448 On Birds from Central and South America. 



was obtained by the Italian traveller Gaetano Osculati during 

 his journey down the Rio Napo in 1847'^. This bird was 

 subsequently figured by Bonaparte in his ' Iconographie des 

 Pigeons/ pi. 96. 



From the type^ and from the figure of Osculatia sapphirina, 

 our bird difTers in having the crown of the head of a rich 

 blackish purple^ from which the white forehead is sharply 

 defined. No such character is to be seen in O. sapphirina ; 

 but I supposed that perhaps our bird was the male^ the other 

 the female^ of the same species ; and so the matter rested^ wait- 

 ing the advent of more specimens. These at last came. Mr. 

 C. Buckley's recent Ecuador collections contained three ex- 

 amples, all of them agreeing with the true O. sapphirina of 

 Bonaparte. With both birds now before me, I no longer 

 doubt that they really belong to two distinct species ; so I 

 now characterize the undescribed one as 



Osculatia purpurata, sp. n. 

 Supra rufo-purpurascens, capite summo Isetissime purpureo, 

 dorso splendide violaceo, uropygio nitente cyaneo-pur- 

 pureo ; dorso superiore et collo postico seneo-viridi mican- 

 tibus ; fronte, striga malari, gutture et ventre toto albis ; 

 pectore pallide cinereo ; striga utrinque guise nigra ; 

 subalaribus et corporis lateribus sordide cinnamomeis ; 

 crisso rufescente ; remigibus fusco-nigris ; rectricibus 

 nigris, trium utrinque externarum apicibus cinereis; ros- 

 tro fusco ; pedibus carneis : long, tota cir. 7'5, alee 5'2, 

 caudse 2'6, tarsi 1"5, rostri a rictu 1*0. 

 Hab. Rep. ^Equatoria. 

 Mus. nostr. 



Obs. AflSnis 0. sapphirincR, sed colore purpureo capitis di- 

 stinguenda ; macula secundariorum alba quoque absente. 



On comparing this bird and O. sapphirina with Geotrygon 

 cristata, the type of the genus Geotrygon of Gosse, I think 

 Bonaparte was justified in placing them in a genus distinct 



* Though a list of birds obtained by Osculati during his travels between 

 1846 and 1848 is given by Corualia in the ' Esplorazione delle Region! 

 Equatorial! ' (2nd edit., 1854, pp. 305-307), no mention is made of this 

 Pigeon, which appears to have been separated from the rest of the collec- 

 tion, and presented to the Paris Museum in 1853. 



