Coraciitlse of the Ethiopian Region. 281 



with a broad purplish-black band near the extremity, which is 

 white, this latter colour being dashed with violet ; feathers of 

 the throat chestnut, the centre of each being much paler and 

 inclining to fulvous towards the tip, which is obscurely white, 

 giving a striped appearance; a broad crescent-shaped band 

 across the breast, extending on each side on to the sides of the 

 neck, white, slightly washed with pale chestnut; upper part of 

 the breast banded alternately with white, chestnut, and black, 

 the latter colour disappeai-ing on the sides of the body, which 

 are banded with chestnut and white only, the flanks tinged with 

 greenish ; middle of the abdomen and under tail-coverts creamy 

 white ; thighs brown, washed with greenish and narrowly banded 

 with white ; under wing-coverts white, slightly mottled with 

 brown ; bill horny black, becoming yellowish towards the tip, 



Hab. Madagascar [Cvossley). 



I regret to say that nothing is known respecting the habits 

 of this very rare bird. Mr. Crossley informed me that he never 

 actually killed a specimen of it himself, but that the one in 

 my collection from which the above description has been taken, 

 was brought to him by the natives, who informed him that it was 

 a night-feeding bird, and procured its food on the ground. The 

 remains of parth on the bill of the bird in question seemed to 

 vouch for the accuracy of this statement. 



Genus 2. Geobiastes. 



Geobiastes squamigerus. 



Brachypteracias squamigera, Lafr. Rev. Zool. 1838, p. 224 ; 

 Pucher. Rev. Zool. 1846, p. 193; Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. i. 

 p. 166 (1850) ; Grand. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1867, p. 354 ; Schl. 

 Mus. Pays-Bas, Coraces, p. 138 (1867) ; Schl. & Poll. Faun. 

 Madag. p. 158 (1868) ; Gray. Hand-1. of B. i. p. 77 (1869). 



Atelornis squamigera, Des Murs, Iconogr. Ornith. pi. xxxix. 

 (1846) ; Reich. Handb. Merop. p. 53, t. ccccxxxvi. fig. 3194 

 (1852) ; Bonap. Consp. Vol. Anis. p. 7 (1854) ; Ilartl. J. f. 0. 

 1860, p. 84; id. Faun. Madag. p. 28 (1861); Verr. in Vins. 

 Voy. Madag. Ann. B. (1865). 



Head black down the centre ; sides of the head and neck and 

 the breast white tinged with fulvous, and everywhere so mottled 



