THE IBIS. 



No. X. APRIL 1861. 



XI. — On new or little-known Birds of North-Eastern Africa. 



By Hofrath Theodor von Heuglin. (Part III. The Barbets, 



Capitonidce^ .) 



[Continued from p. T&.'\ 



(Plate V.) 



The range of the birds belonging to the family of Barbets 

 (Capitonidce) in North-Eastern Africa is confined to the tropical 

 provinces which are subject to a periodical rainy season. North- 

 wards of the boundary of the tropical rains not a single species is 

 found, though the genera Pogonorhijnchus, BarbatuJa, and Tra- 

 chyphonus are abundant in the low countries of the White and 

 Blue Nile. The species which I have observed, generally prefer 

 the plains and low grounds to the mountains, and especially 



* The full synonymy of the African Barbets, and a list of all the known 

 species, are given by M. Jules Verreaux, in an article in the Zoological 

 Society's ' Proceedings' for 1859 (p, 393). Dr. Hartlaub informs us, how- 

 ever, that the Megalcema leucotis of Sundeval, from S. Africa, is not the 

 same as Laimodon unidentatus, as is there stated, but a good and distinct 

 species, and that the Southern Megalaima bilineata, Sundeval, although 

 closely allied to, is not identical with the Western Barbatula leucoltema, 

 Verreaux. Dr. Hartlaub acknowledges Trachyphonus squamiceps, Henglin, 

 as here described, to be quite distinct from T. margaritatus. It also ajipears 

 that M. Verreaux's Laimodon albiventris, of which a description and good 

 figure are given in the paper above referred to, has been previously named 

 by Dr. Petei-s (Bericht Akad. Berlin, 1854, p. 134) Pogonias melanopterus, 

 and is from Mozambique, and not from Western Africa. — Ed. 



VOL. III. K 



