TOURACO 981 



varied by two conspicuous white strealts — one, from the gape to 

 the upper part of the crimson orbit, separated by a black patch 

 from the other, which runs beneath and behind the eye. The 

 wing-coverts, lower part of the back and tail are of a bright steel- 

 purple, the primaries deep crimson, edged and tipped with bluish- 

 black. Over a dozen other congeneric species, more or less 

 resembling this, have now been described, and all inhabit some 

 district of Africa ; but there is only room here to mention that found 

 in the Cape Colony and Natal, where it is known as the " Lory " 

 (r/. p. 519, note 2), and, though figured by Daubenton and others, 

 was first differentiated in 1811 by Wagler as Turacus corythaix, 

 but renamed in 1841 by Strickland {Ann. Nat. Hist vii. p. 33) 

 T. albicristatus — its crest having a conspicuous white border, while 

 the steel-purple of T. persa is replaced by a rich and glossy bluish- 

 green of no less beauty. In nearly all the species of this genus 

 the nostrils are almost completely hidden by the frontal feathers ; 

 but there are two others in which, though closely allied, this is not 

 the case, and some systematists would place them in a separate 

 genus Gallirex ; while another species, the giant of the Family, has 

 been moved into a third genus as Corythseola cristafa. This difi'ers 

 from any of the foregoing by the absence of the crimson coloration 

 of the primaries, and seems to lead to another group, Schizmrhis, 

 in which the plumage is of a still plainer type, and, moreover, the 

 nostrils here are not only exposed but in the form of a slit, instead 

 of being oval as in all the rest. This genus contains four species, 

 one of which, S. concolor, is the Grey Touraco of the colonists in 

 Natal, and is of an almost uniform slaty-brown. Lastly a genus 

 Gijmnoschizorrhis, with a bare forehead, has also been proposed. A 

 good deal has been written about these birds, which form the 

 subject of one of the most beautiful monographs ever published — 

 De Toerako's afgebeld en heschreven, — by Schlegel and Westerman 

 (Amsterdam: 1860): while more recent information is contained 

 in an elaborate essay by Herr Schalow (Jour. f. Orn. 1886, pp. 1-77), 

 and the specimens in the British Museum were catalogued in 1891 

 by Capt. Shelley {Cat. B. Br. Mus. xix. pp. 435-456). Still much 

 remains to be made known as to their distribution throughout 

 Africa, and their habits. They seem to be all fruit-eaters, and to 

 frequent the highest trees, seldom coming to the ground. Very 

 little can be confidently asserted as to their nidification, but at 

 least one species of Schizorrhis is said to make a rough nest and 

 therein lay three eggs of a pale blue colour.^ 



•■ An exti'aordinary peculiarity attends the crimson coloration whicli adorns 

 tlie prinfiaries of so many of the Musophagidx. So long ago as 1818, Jules 

 Verreaux observed {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 40) that in the case of T. corythaix 

 this beautiful hue vanishes on exposure to heavy rain and reappears only after 

 some interval of time and when the feathers are dry. The fact of this colouring 



