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PYCNONOTUS CAPENSIS. 207 
the outer webs of the secondaries ; upper tail-coverts and tail brown, 
strongly washed with olive-green ; ‘bill, tarsi, and feet, ash-colour ; 
iris, ashy hazel.” Total length, 7.4 inches ; culmen, .75 ; wing, 3.45; 
tail, 3.5; tarsus 1. 
191. Pycnonorus cAPENsIS. Red-eyebrowed Bulbul. 
Considerable confusion has existed with regard to the Pyenonoti of 
Africa, and in 1871 the Editor, in criticising the conclusions of Drs. 
Finsch, Hartlaub, and Von Heuglin (P. Z. .S. 1871, p. 131) 
endeavoured to establish that in South Africa there were three 
species of yellow-vented Bulbuls, P. capensis, P. nigricans, and P. 
tricolor. More recently Dr. Reichenow has contended for the 
recognition of one only, P. capensis, and he believes that the dark 
plumaged bird is the young of the white-bellied species. As is the 
case with the other authors above mentioned, he has discarded the 
wattled eye-ring as an obscure character, but it is really of the first 
importance. In the first edition it was stated to be white in the 
present species, and so it isin the dried skin, but in life, Captain 
Shelley found it to be of a “dull dark red,” and therefore Le 
Vaillant’s figure of the “Brunoir,” which has hitherto been kept 
distinct on account of the red eye-rings drawn by him, if it can be 
recognised at all, must be intended for the present bird. Under these 
circumstances we admit only two species, but we shall be obliged 
for any information tending to elucidate the question in any way. 
P. capensis cannot, however, be the young stage of P. tricolor, for we 
owe to the kindness of Lieut. Trevelyan an immature bird of the 
latter, which is coloured exactly like the adult and has the same 
white breast, only the plumage is more fluffy, and the brown colour 
much paler and more rufescent, especially on the margins of the 
wings: the head is black, but not so intense as in the old bird. 
P. capensis has not a black head, but is brown both above and 
below, having only the centre of the abdomen white, gradually 
shaded with yellow as it approaches the under tail-coverts, which are 
bright yellow. 
The “ Kuif-Kop,” as it is called by the colonists, is found in great 
abundance in the neighbourhood of Cape Town, and indeed through- 
out the whole colony. They migrate according to the fruit season, 
and are especially partial to figs and grapes. They also feed largely 
