54 LAMPROTORNIS CAUOATUS 



OQ the feathers ; ends of the upper tail-coverts and the tail glossy violet of 

 a more bronze shade down the middle and greener at the sides ; tail-feathers 

 with numerous indistinctly-marked blackish bars ; wing-coverts, with some 

 black subterminal marks largest towards the scapulars; the green throat 

 inclines to violet where it meets with the bronze of the head and shades into 

 the steel blue of the flanks, thighs and under tail-coverts, and into violet 

 strongly glossed with copper on the centre of the chest; centre of abdo- 

 men blackish. Iris yellow ; bill and feet black. Total length 19-2 inches, 

 culmen 0-9, wing 7-5, tail 11-5, tarsus 1-75, Senegal. 



Tijpc of L. ei/toni. Differs in Ijeing bluer ; nock and mantle steel blue, 

 with a slight shade of violet on tiie mantle and of green on the wings and 

 throat; the black markings on the wings and lower back less distinct. 

 Total length 18 inches, culmen 0-S, wing 6'7, tail llu, tarsus Ido. West 

 Africa. 



A specimen from Fantee (Ussher) has the wing 7'0 and the plumage 

 more shaded with green, and is intermediate between the two specimens 

 above described. 



The Greater Long-tailed Glossy Starling ranges over 

 Northern Tropical Africa from Senegal to the Niger and 

 eastward into Abyssinia; but the bluer form, L. eijtuni, has 

 not been recorded from further east than Fantee. 



I doubt L. eijtoni being even a good subspecies, as it is 

 known only from the districts inhabited by L. caudatas, and 

 as yet we know little with regard to the moult of these 

 species. In one of Ussher's specimens in the green plumage, 

 from Fantee, wing 7'8, the tail has changed, prior to the 

 moult, into violet-shaded bronze with one new centre feather 

 bright violet shaded steel blue. 



Dr. Keichenow refers to L. ajtuni two specimens in the 

 Berlin Museum, one froui Senegal and the other from the 

 Gambia, and to this form belongs one of Captain Giliard's 

 specimens labelled " <? , Gambaga, '25. 9. 1898. iris yellow," 

 of which Dr. Hartert writes : " This bird is on the breast, 

 neck, back, and wings purplish blue, and is therefore L. eytu/ti 

 (Fras.), if tiiat is a distinct species. An adidt female from 

 Moshi, 1. 7. 1898; iris light yellow, has the back, breast, and 



