18 THAMNOLAEA NIGRA. 



Saxicola nigra ^ Gray, Gen. B. I, p. 179 (1846). 

 Myrmecocichla nigra., Bp. Consp. I, p. 302 (1850); Hartl. 



Orn. W. Afr. p. 65 (1857); Bocage, Orn. 



d'Ang. p. 268 (1881). 

 Myrmecocichla levaillanti, Rchw. J. f. 0. 1882, p. 212. 



Under the name of Sylvia nigra, Vieillot mentioned in 

 Eneycl. Méth. II, 1823, p. 489, a white-capped bird, so 

 that this name has to be referred to the southern or east- 

 ern form. Whether the forms with white on head or throat, 

 which are known under the names of Thamnolaea shelleyi 

 Sharpe , leucolaema Rchw. and arnotti Tristr., belong all to 

 one and the same species, as Dr. Reichenow suggests, or 

 not , I dare not say , having at my disposal only the south- 

 ern form with a white superciliary stripe, a form which 

 I mentioned as T. arnotti in N. L. M. 1888, p. 227. 

 (Mr. Van der Keilen , whom we owe that bird , has sent a 

 female specimen of the same species, probably a young one, 

 the whole plumage of which is olive brown , all the feathers 

 above and below being edged with fulvous brown , while 

 not the least trace of white is to be seen on head or wing- 

 coverts). 



Whenever the southern and eastern forms , with more 

 or less white on the head and a large white wing-patch 

 which occupies , with the exception of the tips , also the 

 greater wing-coverts, might prove to belong to one and 

 the same species, this latter would receive the name of 



Thamnolaea arnotti (Tristr.) 



with the following synonymy: 



Sylvia nigra, Vieill. Eneycl. Me'th. II, p. 489 (1823). 

 Saxicola arnotti, Tristram, Ibis, 1869, p. 206, pi. 6. 

 Saxicola shelleyi, Sharpe, Layard's Birds of South Afr. p. 246. 

 Myrmecocichla leucolaema, Rchw. Orn. Centralbl. 1880, 

 p. 181. 



Leyden Museum, November 1891. 



Notes from tlie X^eydeu jyEuseuixi, Vol. XIV, 



