286 Mr. R. B. Sharpc on the 



scapulars, and least wing-coverts glossy green, tinged everywhere 

 with shining coppery red ; greater wing-coverts entirely of the 

 last-named colour; primary-coverts dull bluish green; quills 

 greyish black, the inner web white at the base, the external web 

 glossed with green, as also the secondaries, which have the outer 

 web coppery red like the scapulars ; tail greyish black strongly 

 glossed with metallic green and slightly with coppery red ; entire 

 under surface cinereous, becoming white on the abdomen and 

 under wing- and tail-coverts ; bill dark plumbeous ; feet orange- 

 brown. 



Female. General colour of the plumage rufous brown, barred 

 on the sides of the head and back of the neck with glossy black ; 

 crown of the head for the most part black ; entire back brown, 

 spotted with fulvous and everywhere glossed with dull green and 

 coppery red shades; wing-coverts black, spotted with chestnut, 

 glossed with coppery red ; quills greyish black, white at the base 

 of the inner web ; secondaries barred and margined with chest- 

 nut, glossed with coppery red; tail brown, becoming black 

 towards the tip, which is slightly edged with rufous; under 

 surface of the body pale fawn-colour, everywhere spotted with 

 glossy greenish black before the apex of the feather, which is 

 white; bill horn-brown ; feet orange-brown. 



Hab. Madagascar [E. Newton, Grandidier, Crossley) ; Mayotte 

 {Pollen and Van Dam) ; Johanna I. [Sclater). 



M. Grandidier (/. c.) says that the name given to this species 

 in the Vetsimarak district of Madagascar is Kiroumho, and in the 

 Sakalave district Treo-Treo, the last name being derived from 

 the melancholy cry that the bird utters. The iris, he says, is 

 clear brown, the feet deep yellow, and the species is found in the 

 north-east, north-west, and south-west parts of Madagascar. 



" The Courols " he adds, " live in bands of ten or twelve indi- 

 viduals on the borders of woods. As soon as one of these birds 

 is knocked over with a shot, all the others place themselves at 

 a little distance off or hover round the hunter, so that sometimes 

 one may kill as many as ten in less than a quarter of an hour. 

 The young male has the plumage of the female ; and it is on 

 the feathers of the head and on the wing-coverts that the first 

 change in coloration commences." 



