132 NECROPSAR LEGUATl 



been received since 1844. The spccimon I have described is 

 in the British Museum, and there are both adult and young- 

 birds in the Paris Museum. 



Genus XV. NECROPSAR. 



As the type of the genus is known only by a few Ijones, I have taken 

 the following characters from M. Icguati. 



Structure and proportions of the bill and legs vary similar to that of 

 Hartlaubius, with a slight notch on the upper mandible close to the tip ; 

 but the wings are totally different. Primaries five and six equal, and the 

 longest 1 = 1-52 inches; 2=2G0; .3=3-12; 4=4-25; 5=4-36; secondaries 

 fall short of tip of wing by 0-52, tarsus 1-25, culmen 1-3. 



Type. 



Necropsar, Sclater, Phil. Trans, clxviii. p. 427 (1879) . M. rodcricanus. 



The genus was founded upon a few bones of an extinct bird obtained 

 on Eodriguez, one of the most eastern islands of the Madagascar subregion, 

 and was named M. rodericanus (Giinther and E. Newton, Phil. Trans, 

 clxviii. p. 427, pi. 42, figs. A— G (1H79) ; Rharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 195). 



The second species, M. leguali, is known by a single skin, which is now 

 in the Liverpool Museum, and is presumed to have been a native of the 

 Isle de Mat, a little barren island off the southern coast of Eodriguez. It 

 passed into the Derby collection in 1850. 



Necropsar leguati. 



Necropsar leguati, Forbes, Bull. Liverpool Mus. i. p. 34, pi. 1 (1898) 

 Madagascar (Verr.). 



General plumage pure white, with a rufous shade on the quills and tail. 

 Bill, tal-si, feet and claws, yellow. Total length 9 inches, culmen 1-3, wing 

 4-35, tail 2-9, tarsus 125. 



Leguat's White StarHng probably inhabited the Isle de 

 Mat. The type is now in the Liverpool Museum, and has 

 been carefully described and figured by Dr. H. 0. Forbes, 

 who believes it to be the White-bird or Egg-eating Starling 

 of the Islet de Mat, and observes : " In one of the appen- 

 dices to the second volume of Captain Oliver's edition of 

 TJte Voijage of Frcnicois Legnat, where under the heading 



