Miscellaneous. pall 
the wing is formed largely by the middle and greater coverts, and, 
beginning nearly at the outer edge of the wing, continues obliquely 
across the roots of the primaries, secondaries, and tertials, meeting 
on the back with the white of the rump, so as to form a deep curve 
over the folded wings and back. The white on the wing is even 
more extensive than is apparent. On lifting the overlying dark 
plumage, this colour is seen to involve nearly all the upper portion 
of the wing, the internal surface of which, as well as the axillaries, 
are white. The outer greater coverts are white at the base, but 
are black glossed with green on their margins; on the external 
feather the black is so reduced as to leave only a border on a 
white ground. The whole upper plumage of the head and back 
as far as the rump is of deep blue-black with glossy steel-blue 
reflections. 
In 1851, J. and E. Verreaux described in the Rey. et Mag. de 
Zool., p. 808, a second species, Muscicapa(?) violacea. In the same 
year, H. E. Strickland brought home from the river Gaboon a 
specimen which he described in Jardine’s ‘ Contributions to Orni- 
thology,’ 1851, p. 182, under the name of Hyliota violacea, after 
having had the opportunity of consulting the manuscript of Ver- 
reaux, to which he refers. He remarks as follows :—‘‘ This bird is 
interesting as affording a second species of a genus of which one 
specimen only, the H. flavigastra, Swains., of Senegal, was hitherto 
known. It much resembles H. flavigastra, but differs in its 
broader beak and the less extent of white on the wing. Whole 
upper parts black with a steel-blue gloss, of a rather more purple 
hue than in flavigastra. Three or four of the greater wing-coverts 
next the body are white (in flavigastra the whole of the middle, and 
the basal half of the greater coverts are white). Lower parts pale 
cream-colour, 
“Total length 5 inches; beak to front ‘5, to gape °7, broad °23 ; 
wing ‘3; medial rectrices ‘1 and -9, external ‘2; tarsus °7.” 
Of Hyliota violacea, as above described, the Academy possesses 
two specimens. One is the identical bird on which the species was 
founded by Verreaux ; and its characters agree with the description 
of that author, as well as with that of Strickland, and also with 
that to be found in Hartlaub’s ‘ Ornithologie Westafricas,’ Bremen, 
1857, p. 98. 
The second specimen in possession of the Academy belongs to the 
Du Chaillu 1st Coll., and is also from the river Gaboon. ‘This bird 
is mentioned in Cassin’s ‘ Catalogue,’ Proc. Acad. of Nat. Sciences, 
1869, p.51; but no description is given. Essentially its characters 
are the same as those of the type specimen of Verreaux. 
In this species the only white to be seen on the whole wing is 
on one single feather belonging to the inner portion of the greater 
coyerts. There are really about five feathers belonging to the series 
of ornamental coverts; but they overlie each other, and are so dis- 
posed that in the closed wing only one of them is visible. 
The rump in both species is covered with long, loose, silky fea- 
thers, of a white or greyish-white colour from the base to near the 
tip, when the feather suddenly becomes dark and at the same time 
