468 Mr. J. H. Garney's Notes on 



a gentleman who consigned it to the care of Mr. Burton, the 

 bird-preserver, of Wardour Street, to whom I am indebted 

 for the opportunity of inspecting it. 



M. anderssoni, originally obtained by the late Mr. Anders- 

 son in Damara Land, has, since then, been found in Mada- 

 gascar, but not, so far as I am aware, in any intervening 

 locality between these, its western and eastern limits. 



Three of the specimens obtained in Madagascar are remark- 

 able for the fuliginous colouring of the under surface ; two 

 of these are preserved in the Paris Museum, and have been 

 described, and one of them figured, by MM. Milne-Edwards 

 and Grandidier in their ' Hist. Nat. des Oiseaux de Mada- 

 gascar,^ pi. 25 ; both these specimens are there said to be 

 females, and one of them to have been killed on the nest, of 

 which, however, no particulars are given. 



The third fuliginous specimen is in the possession of Pro- 

 fessor Newton, to whose kindness I am indebted for an op- 

 portunity of examining it ; its sex has not been recorded, but 

 its dimensions, of which I took the following notes, lead me 

 to believe that it is also a female : — 



inclies. 

 Culmen (exclusive of cere) . . '80 



Wing 14-0 



Tarsus 2-40 



Middle toe 1-80 



My examination of this example has led me to agree with 

 the opinion expressed by Mr. Sharpe in * The Ibis ' for 1875, 

 p. 254, that the type specimen figured in the ' Transactions 

 of the Zoological Society,' vol. vi. p. 29, and others resembling 

 it, are immature, and that the fuliginous phase is, in fact (as 

 has also been asserted by MM. Milne-Edwards and Grandi- 

 dier, /. c), the adult dress of this species. 



The following memoranda were noted by me as to the plu- 

 mage of Professor Newton^'s fuliginous specimen : — 



This bird, which was obtained in the month of June, had 

 nearly completed a moult ; the new feathers on the upper 

 surface are blackish brown, appearing black in some lights, 

 especially on the crown of the head, and are darker than the 



