On the ^' Perroquet mascarin " of Brisson. 303 



occidentalis {Parus leucopterus, Swains.) cum speciminibus 

 orientalibus omnino conveniunt. 



5. Melaniparus funereus^ J. et E. Verr. Journ. fur Orn. 

 1865, p. 104. 



Hab. in Gaboon {Verreaux). 



6. Melaniparus rufiventris (Bocage), Jorn. Sc. Math. 

 Phys. e Natur. n. xxii. (Extracto, p. 20) (1822). 



Hab, in Angola {Anchieta). 



XXV. — On the Systematic Position and Scientific Name of 

 " Le Perroquet mascar'in " of Brisson. By W. A. Eorbes, 

 M.B.O.U. &c. 



During a visit to Paris last autumn in company with Mr. 

 Sclater and Dr. Hai'tlaub, I had an opportunity of seeing for 

 the first time, in the gallery of the Museum of the Jardin des 

 Plantes, one* of the two sole extant specimens of "Le Per- 

 roquet mascarin '' of Brisson, the " Coracopsis mascai'ina " 

 of most authors. This specimen is not improbably that de- 

 scribed by Brisson, and is still in a fair state of preservation, 

 though its Avings and tail are rather damaged. On seeing it 

 I was at once struck with several points in which it differed 

 conspicuously from the other species usually placed in the 

 genus Coracopsis ; and after my return to England, at my 

 request, Prof. Alphonse Milne-Edwards was kind enough to 

 have life-sized sketches of the head and foot of this specimen 

 made for me, which are here reproduced, all the figures we 

 have of this species being more or less reduced in size. As 

 will be seen from the drawing (fig. 1, p. 304), the beak in this 

 species is very large and deep, not so compressed and elongated 

 as in Psittacus or Coracopsis, but more like in shape that of a 

 large-billed species of Tanygnathus or Paleeornis. Moreover 

 the beak is redf, as in most of the species of the two last- 

 named genera; whereas in Psittacus or Coracopsis it is black, or 



* The other is in the Vienna Museum (cf. Pelzeln, Ibis, 1873, p. 32). 

 t Du Bois (cf. Ibis, 1876, p. 286) calls it " couleur de feu." 



