652 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.37. 



Amoy were wrongly ascribed to be princeps (i. e., atrocaudata) , and 

 the new form was not given a name. 



On examining the synonomy of the species it was found that prin- 

 ceps as a specific name had been apphed by Vigors « in 1831 to a 

 totally difterent bird, a Pericrocotus, which at that time was included 

 in the genus Muscipeta. Schlegel on making this discovery pro- 

 posed the name principalis, but meanwhile the bird had been de- 

 scribed from "Malaya" by Eyton as atrocaudata, vfhich. name there- 

 fore takes precedence for the Kiushiu and Korean birds, while for the 

 bird from the main island of Japan I propose the name Terpsiphone 

 owstoni. 



TERPSIPHONE b ATROCAUDATA (Eyton). 



1835. Muscipeta princeps Temminck, PI. Col., vol. 3, livr. 99, pi. 584 (not of 

 Vigors, 1831). — Terpsiphone princeps Sharpe, Brit. Mus. Cat. Birds, 1879, 

 vol. 4, p. 361 (part). — Tchitrea princeps Blakiston and Pryer, Proc. Asiatic 

 See. Japan, 1882, p. 148 (part). 



1839. Muscipeta atrocaudata Eyton, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, p. 102. 



1847. Muscipeta principalis Temminck and Schlegel, Faun. Japon., p. 47, pi. 

 17 E. 



Description. — Adult male. — Above glossy violet maroon distmctly 

 violaceous in some lights; tail-coverts abruptly blue black, tail blue 

 black; head and crest, throat and ear-coverts velvety violaceous 

 black; chest, sides of breast, and hind neck blue black; flanks and 

 sides of the body dusky purplish brown; rest of under surface and 

 under tail-coverts pure white, the white of the belly sharply defined 

 against the black of the breast ; axillaries like the flanks, the terminal 

 portion white- tipped; under wing-coverts pure white with dusky bases 

 to the feathers, innermost win.g-coverts uniform dusky; lesser and 

 middle wing-coverts more violaceous than the back, greater wing- 

 coverts dark maroon chestnut; wing blue black, the secondaries very 

 slightly edged with maroon chestnut. Iris blue black ; bill and soft ring 

 around the eye cobalt blue ; tarsi and toes bluish lead color. 



Adult female. — Above clear chestnut with a decided violaceous tinge ; 

 middle wing-coverts lighter and less violaceous than the back, primary 



a Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1831, p. 22. 



b The generic term Terpsiphone (Gloger, 1827) is here used in preference to Tchitrea 

 (Lesson, 1831) for the following reason. Terpsiphone, as already stated by Oberholser 

 (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 22, 1900, p. 245), is only a substitute for "Muscipeta 

 Cuv., " and the type of the latter is of necessity also the type of the former. Cuvier 

 instituted the genus Muscipeta in 1817 (Regne xVnimal, vol. 1, p. 344) for a number of 

 "moucheroles," the first species enumerated being Todus regius Gmelin. This fact 

 probably accounts for Oberholser's statement that this species is the type of Muscipeta. 

 The first species rule not having been incorporated in the Rules of Nomenclature of 

 the International Zoological Congress, the type has to be ascertained according to 

 article 30 of this code. Dr. C. W. Richmond has kindly called my attention to the 

 fact that Vigors, as early as 1830 (Mem. Raffles, p. 657), consequently even before 

 Lesson's Tchitrea appeared, designated Muscicapa paradisi Linnaeus as the type of 

 Muscipeta. This species then becomes also the type of Terpsiphone (1827) which 

 takes the place of Muscipeta Cuvier, because the latter is preoccupied by Muscipeta 

 Koch, 1816. — L. Stejneger. 



I 



