TOURACO 981 
varied by two conspicuous white streaks—one, from the gape to 
the upper part of the crimson orbit, separated by a black patch 
from the other, which runs beneath and behind the eye. The 
wing-coverts, lower part of the back and tail are of a bright steel- 
purple, the primaries deep crimson, edged and tipped with bluish- 
black. Over a dozen other congeneric species, more or less 
resembling this, have now been described, and all inhabit some 
district of Africa ; but there is only room here to mention that found 
in the Cape Colony and Natal, where it is known as the “ Lory” 
(cf. p. 519, note 2), and, though figured by Daubenton and others, 
was first differentiated in 1811 by Wagler as Turacus corythaia, 
but renamed in 1841 by Strickland (Ann. Nat. Hist. vii. p. 33) 
fT. albicristatus—its crest having a conspicuous white border, while 
the steel-purple of 7. persa is replaced by a rich and glossy bluish- 
green of no less beauty. In nearly all the species of this genus 
the nostrils are almost completely hidden by the frontal feathers ; 
but there are two others in which, though closely allied, this is not 
the case, and some systematists would place them in a separate 
genus Gallirex ; while another species, the giant of the Family, has 
been moved into a third genus as Corythxola cristata. This differs 
from any of the foregoing by the absence of the crimson coloration 
of the primaries, and seems to lead to another group, Schizorrhas, 
in which the plumage is of a still plainer type, and, moreover, the 
nostrils here are not only exposed but in the form of a slit, instead 
of being oval as in all the rest. This genus contains four species, 
one of which, S. concolor, is the Grey Touraco of the colonists in 
Natal, and is of an almost uniform slaty-brown. Lastly a genus 
Gymnoschizorrhis, with a bare forehead, has also been proposed. A 
good deal has been written about these birds, which form the 
subject of one of the most beautiful monographs ever published— 
De Toerako’s afgebeld en beschreven,—by Schlegel and Westerman 
(Amsterdam: 1860); while more recent information is contained 
in an elaborate essay by Herr Schalow (Jour. f. Orn. 1886, pp. 1-77), 
and the specimens in the British Museum were catalogued in 1891 
by Capt. Shelley (Cat. B. Br. Mus. xix. pp. 435-456). Still much 
remains to be made known as to their distribution throughout 
Africa, and their habits. They seem to be all fruit-eaters, and to 
frequent the highest trees, seldom coming to the ground. Very 
little can be confidently asserted as to their nidification, but at 
least one species of Schizorrhis is said to make a rough nest and 
therein lay three eggs of a pale blue colour.' 
1 An extraordinary peculiarity attends the crimson coloration which adorns 
the primaries of so many of the I/usophagide. So long ago as 1818, Jules 
Verreaux observed (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 40) that in the case of 7. corythaix 
this beautiful hue vanishes on exposure to heavy rain and reappears only after 
some interval of time and when the feathers aredry. The fact of this colouring 
