230 Mr. E. L. Layard on South-African Ornit/iolof/ij. 



Any one acquainted with the Pijcnonoti knows the strong family 

 resemblance between the various species ; and, unwilling as I am 

 to make new ones, I cannot but look on this as at least a local race, 

 though I forbear to give it a name. Hitherto its western limit, 

 within my range, has been Graham's Town; to the eastward it 

 extends to near Delagoa Bay, where Mr. E. C. Buxton obtained 

 it, and at once noted the black eyelid, which distinguishes it 

 from our other two species, P. capensis with the white eyelid, 

 and P. nigricans with the red eyelid. 



I should not wonder if this was the species intended to be 

 described by Le Vaillant as " Le Cudor,'^ Ois. d'Afr. pi. 107. 

 tig. 2. The locaHty in which it was procured would seem to 

 indicate this -, and the explanation which M. J. Verreaux gives of 

 the circumstances which led Le Vaillant to figure so many 

 eastern and fabricated specimens as South-African enables one 

 to comprehend many hitherto inexplicable blunders. 



M. Jules Verreaux, when very young, was personally acquainted 

 with Le Vaillant ; what a link to the past it seems ! He states 

 that when Le Vaillant collected in S. Africa he knew nothing of 

 ornithology as a science. His collections were nearly all lost by 

 the sinking of the ship in which they were being transmitted to 

 Europe; but he saved his MS. notes, and, being unwilling that the 

 work of so many years should be entirely lost, he rummaged every 

 collection to which he could get access. Where he found any 

 bird which he thought resembled (or actually was) what he had 

 shot at the Cape, he figured it, and appended to it his notes of 

 the real Cape bird. In this way he became a prey to unscru- 

 pulous traders and bird-skin makers, and figured many species 

 closely allied to African birds, but which have not the least claim 

 to be called South-African. 



In justice to Le Vaillant — to whom, on the other hand, I 

 have always accorded full praise as a most accurate observer 

 when his bird really did exist in S. Africa — I lose no time in 

 publishing this explanation. Still I must say, as a certain 

 Lady Mayoress is said to have exclaimed, "He didn't ought to 

 to have done it." 



