—— SS a ae 
PHLEXIS VICTORINI. 285 
beyond doubt. We have examined in the British Museum a specimen 
obtained by Mr. Andersson at the Knysna, and correctly identified by 
the late Mr. George Gray as P. victorini. This individual perfectly 
agrees with other specimens of the true P. layardi, obtained by Mr. 
Atmore and his son, Mr. H. Atmore, near George in the Knysna 
district. On comparing these specimens also with Sundevall’s origi- 
nal description, there can be no doubt as to their perfect identity. 
After the late Sir Andrew Smith’s death, there was discovered a 
little box among his effects, containing some bird-skins, some of 
which were marked by him as having been obtained during the old 
expedition into Central Africa. The birds contained in this box 
were handed over by his executors to the British Museum, and it is 
evident that the contents were skins of birds which he had been 
unable to identify, and which had been laid aside and forgotten. 
Among them was a specimen of P. victorini, along with several other 
birds which were not made known to science for twenty or thirty 
years after they had been discovered by him. 
We think that the present species may very fairly be kept generi- 
cally distinct from the other Bradypteri. The extreme development 
of the loose feathers on the lower back and rump, and the very 
short wings seem to separate it. Victorin obtained his original 
specimens at the Knysna in September and October, and the late 
Mr. Andersson also met with it in the same locality. Mr. W. 
Atmore writes to us :—* The habits of P. layardi are exactly like 
those of Sphenceacus africanus, but it is even more difficult to raise 
from its covert. The one now sent I got at Forest Hall, Pletten- 
berg’s Bay. I was looking for a surveying station, and she flew out 
of some dense scrub. In the scrub was a cup-shaped nest like that 
of S. africanus, not quite finished. I hunted in vain for the male, 
and never passed the spot without a search, as well as looking into 
every similar place, but this was all I saw. When raised, their 
flight is only a feeble flutter, like that of S. africanus or Porzana 
pygmeea.” 
Adult male-—Above rufescent brown; the head rather more ashy 
brown than the back; wings dark brown, the feathers edged with 
rufous brown like the back; tail rufous brown and consisting of 
twelve feathers; lores slightly tinged with rufous; feathers round 
the eye, and ear coverts dull greyish; cheeks and under surface of 
body rufous, paler on the abdomen ; the sides of the body rufous- 
a 
