of the Genus Tympaaistria. 3 



dorso concoloribus ; maculis metallicis alee omnino nulUs ; 

 rectricibus fuscis, binis lateralibus griseis, fascia lata 

 anteapicali nigra; rostro rubello-fuscesceute ; pedibus 

 coccineis; iride aurantiaco-rubeiite. Long. tot. circa 

 25 cent., rostr. 14 mill., al. 132 mill., caud. 85 mill., 

 tars, 20 mill. 



In the collection received in 1883 from Dr. Emin Bey (I 

 prefer retaining this pseudonym for the present), the last 

 which has reached me, and of which I am preparing a de- 

 tailed account, there is a single specimen of a Tympanistria, 

 which, at first sight, struck me from the total want of the 

 fine metallic wing-spots so very conspicuous in T, bicolor. 

 The sj)ecimen being a fully adult male, this was a most 

 interesting differential character. I have been able to exa- 

 mine a large number of specimens of T. bicolor, a species not 

 rare in collections, besides which I have gone through all 

 the descriptions of this bird published by ornithologists 

 (Heuglin, Barboza du Bocage, Sharpe, Shelley, &c.). No- 

 where do I find a specimen mentioned in which these metallic 

 wing-spots (of a more or less bluish or greenish shade) have 

 been wanting. Therefore I feel justified in proclaiming 

 this species from Eastern Equatorial Africa as a new 

 one. 



The other differences from the common T. bicolor, which 

 is not different from T. fraseri, Bp., are less important. In 

 most of the specimens of T. bicolor the inferior part of the 

 hack shows two irregular bands of a darker colour. But 

 this is not quite constant, and the two bands vary much in 

 distinctness. Thus, for instance, in a specimen from Gaboon 

 in the Bremen collection I can discover only one band. The 

 ground-colour of the inferior part of the back is, in many 

 specimens, rather greyish, in others it is not to be distin- 

 guished from the colour of the upper part of the back. In 

 my new species the ground-colour of the whole upper parts, 

 rump and upper tail-coverts included, is a uniform olive- 

 brown, with a very faint bronze gloss. Then there are some 

 irregular dark spots, forming a sort of transverse band. 



The white superciliary stripe, which in Tympanistria bi- 



B 2 



