22G Mr. E. L. LayarJ on South-African Ornitholocjy. 



species; and one, which seems quite new to science, I propose 

 to name, in commemoration of its discoverer, 



Barbatula extoni, nobis (Exton's Yellow Barbet). 

 Upper parts greyish-black, verging to pure black on the head ; 

 mottled with greenish-white spots, smallest and roundest on 

 the back of the head and neck, larger and more elongated 

 on the back ; rump greenish yellow ; lesser wing-coverts and 

 primaries on the outer edge bordered with orange-yellow ; 

 tail-feathers narrowly edged with dirty white ; a brilliant orange 

 patch occupies the anterior portion of the vertex, separated 

 from the bill by a broadish black bar, coalescing with the 

 pure black of the head, and succeeded by a narrow white bar, 

 which covers the nostrils and passes backward under the eye ; 

 two short white bars proceed from the edges of this suborbital 

 streak, and are divided by black bars from each other and from 

 the greenish-yellow of the throat and chin ; eyebrow small and 

 white. All the underparts dirty pale ashy, more or less tinged 

 with green or greenish yellow. Length 4" 6'", wing 2" 7'", 

 tail 1" 3'", tarsus 6'". 



The nearest ally to this pretty little species is B. chrysocoma, 

 from which it differs in the pure black of the head, the rounder 

 shape and fewer number of the greenish-white markings on the 

 upper parts, the greater breadth of the black bar of the forehead, 

 the less vivid orange of the wing- feathers, and in the dull colour 

 of the underparts (which in B. chrysocoma are bright chrome- 

 yellow), and notably in its larger size. 



In his notes, Dr. Exton writes that he obtained this bird near 

 Kanye, a native town in the Bechuana country (lat. 24° 50' S., 

 long. 25° 40' E.), midway between the Marico and the Kalahari 

 desert, and that the stomachs of the only three specimens pro- 

 cured contained the fruit of a species of mistletoe. 



In the same region he shot Laimodon nigrithorax (Cuv.), 

 L. leucomelas (Bodd.), and Capito vaillanti (Ranz.). Of the latter 

 he writes that " the note of this bird is a continuous trill, some- 

 what resembling the quick ' tap-tap-tap ' of Dcndrohates when 

 at work on a decayed tree. I obtained three specimens by fol- 

 lowing the sound from tree to tree. When calling, they usually 

 perched on the uppermost twig of a tree ; and their peculiar jerk 



