Dr. G. Hartlaub on a new Bird from W. Africa. 321 



XXXV. — On a New Bird from Western Africa. 

 By Dr. G. Hartlaub*, F.M.Z.S. 



(Plate XI.) 



Equatorial Gaboon must undoubtedly be reckoned among 

 those districts of Africa which are most rich in ornithology. 

 DuChaillu, Franquet, Aubry-Lecomte, Fosse, Gujon, and others 

 have collected species, up to the number of 400, in this some- 

 what confined locality. Parinia, Phodidornis, Archimerops, 

 Pa7-moptila, Alethe, Erythrocercus, Megabias, Artomyias, Ver- 

 reauxia, Hetcerodes, Phasidus, are among the most remarkable 

 forms of the African Avifauna, and have as yet been only met 

 with in Gaboon. But still more remarkable than all these, and 

 in our eyes, indeed, to be placed among the most interesting 

 ornithological discoveries of the present time, is a new genus 

 of bird of the order Fissirostres from this country, which, thanks 

 to the friendly zeal of Jules Verreaux, has lately come into our 

 hands, and which we wish to introduce into the system under 

 the name Pseudochelidon. 



It is evident, at the first glance, that this form must be 

 placed as a connecting link between the families of Hirundinidce 

 and Coraciida, which have been so truly and rightly placed 

 near one another by George llobert Grayf. A distinguished 

 observer, to whom we showed the bird without allowing him to 

 see the bill and feet, pronounced it at once to be a Swallow ; 

 and, in fact, the size, colour, formation of the tail and wings 

 (particularly of the latter) seem thoroughly Swallow-like ; while 



* Translated from part i. of the ' Journal fiir Ornithologie ' for the 

 present year (p. 11). 



t We cannot agree with Mr. Gray and Dr. Hartlaub in considering the 

 Coraciida and Hirundinidce to be at all nearly allied. The Swallows, 

 though often confounded with the Swifts {Cypselidce), have, as has been 

 repeatedly shown by those who have studied their anatomical and pteiy- 

 lographical structure, nothmg to do with the true Fissirostres, but form a 

 merely modified group of typical Oscines. Pseudochelidon, having, as Dr. 

 Hartlaub has kindly informed us, ten primaries, should, in our opinion, 

 have been compared with Cypselus ; and with all deference to Dr. Hart- 

 laub's great authority, we venture to suggest that it will eventually 

 be recognized as an aberrant form of the Cypselidce, perhaps leading oflF 

 towards Eurystomus. — Ed. 



