174 Mr. J. H. Gurney on three apparently 



This specimen, which is evidently adult, or very nearly so, 

 is in the collection of Messrs. Salvin and Godman, and is the 

 only example of the bird which I have seen. 



In conformation and dimensions it closely resembles Mor- 

 phnus guianensis ; but it differs from that species in several 

 important details of marking and coloration, as will appear 

 from the following description. 



The sides of the head are dark slate-colour, and the crown 

 the same, but tinged with blackish, both being darker than 

 the corresponding parts in M. guianensis* ; but the dark mark 

 behind the eye, which is conspicuous in the latter species, is 

 in the present one scarcely distinguishable from the slate- 

 coloured plumage which surrounds it ; the feathers of the 

 occipital crest are blackish brown, with mottled white bases, 

 and also with narrow whitish tips, except one feather, which 

 (as is usually the case in M. guianensis) is much longer and 

 larger than the other portions of the crest, and in which the 

 white tip is wanting. 



The mantle is blackish brown, with concealed mottled 

 white bases to the feathers ; the bird seems to have been 

 killed whilst moulting, the old feathers being of a dark brown, 

 whilst the newer are as black on their exposed portions as is 

 the case in the adult of M. guianensis ; the lesser wing-coverts 

 are composed of such black feathers with narrow white tips 

 as in M. guianensis ; the feathers of the median coverts are, 

 in a few instances, black Avhcre exposed, but in most cases dark 

 brown, both being crossed with from three to four somewhat 

 irregular white bars, which arc much more conspicuous than 

 the corresponding markings in M. guianensis. 



The feathers of the bastard wing are blackish, showing on 

 the inner wel) two broad bars of dark grey, marbled with a 

 still darker shade of the same. 



* The plumage of M, f/iiianensis, to wliicli I refer for comparison, is, in 

 every instance, that of the fully adult bird. As, I believe, the colours of 

 the soft parts in 31. guianensis have not been recorded, I may mention that 

 an immature bird in chanp-e, which was recently living in the Gardens of 

 the Zoological Society, had the iridiss pale grey, the cere and skin near 

 the eye slate-colour, and the tarsi and feet yellow. 



