ON THE GENUS PYCNONOTUS. 225 



NOTE XXXII. 



ON THE GENUS PYCNONOTUS AND SOME 

 ALLIED GENERA, 



WITH ENUMERATION OP THE SPECIMENS IN 

 THE LEYDEN MUSEUM 



Dr. J. BUTTIKOFER. 



This paper , based especially upon the material in the 

 Leyden Museum, may be regarded as a little attempt to show 

 how much a revision of the Pycnonotidae is needed. A funda- 

 mental revision only, embracing the whole group , will be 

 able to thoroughly differentiate the many genera , and it 

 will be a thaukful task, for instance, to thoroughly sepa- 

 rate Xenocichla from Criniger ^) and Pycnonotus. This latter 

 genus is very unsatisfactorily defined , and undoubtedly 

 contains too many heterogenous elements, which ought to 

 be just as well excluded as are Otocompsa and Kelaartia. 

 In fact the genus Pycnonotus should be restricted to the 

 African and Syrio- Arabian species, which are sufficiently 

 characterized by their plain earthy brown or sandy brown 

 color, without white upper tail-coverts , without white- 

 tipped tail and without any olive-green on the quills ^). 



The Asiatic forms with paler edgings to the feathers on 



1) See my note on this subject in N. L. M. 1888, p. 78, and also Captain 

 Shelley's remarks. Ibis 1896, p. 233. 



2) P. Falkensteini , with its green upper surface (Sharpe, Cat. VI, p. 46) 

 should be brought back under Criniger, as which it is originally described by 

 Reichenow. 



Notes from the Leyden IMuseuxxi, Vol. XVII. 



15 



