^°'iS^'^] Richmond, Ne-v Birds, from East Africa. I^C^ 



Entire head, nape, rump, upper tail-coverts, and whole under parts slate 

 gray, with a slight greenish purple gloss ; feathers of rump, and upper 

 tail-coverts with blackish centres ; lores and a narrow ring around eyes 

 black ; thighs blackish ; back and scapulars glossy purplish black, with a 

 slight bronzy wash ; wings and tail black; primaries with the greater part 

 of the inner webs cinnamon rufous, and a narrow line along the outer web, 

 next the shaft, of the same color, but not visible externally when the wing 

 is closed; wing-coverts black, like upper surface of wing; lesser coverts a 

 trifle more glossy ; under wing-coverts and axillaries like under surface 

 of body but without gloss ; edge of wing black. Wing, 3. 85 inches ; tail, 

 3.07; tarsus, .80; culmen, .73; width of bill at base, .38; length of first 

 primary (exposed portion), .70. " Irides light yellow." 



A single specimen of this interesting bird was obtained by Dr. 

 Abbott. It is referred with some doubt to Amydrus, since it 

 differs from the known species of this genus in its small size, 

 circular nostrils, and concealed (instead of exposed) rufous of the 

 wings. It has been carefully compared with descriptions of 

 related genera, but differs from the majority of them in having the 

 wings longer than the tail. This last character is apparently all 

 that separates it from Cabanis's Myiopsar^ 'y^n P(ico'ptera\. In 

 describing his Myiopsar cryptopyrrhns^ Dr. Cabanis expressly 

 states the tail to be longer than the wing and to resemble that of 

 Calornis mctallica : also that the nostrils are small, round and 

 open. Dr. Sharpe, however, in a note "^ on Pocoptera lugnbris^ 

 redescribes the birds after an examination of the type, and gives 

 measurements (''wing 3.5, tail ^.t,'') which indicate exactly the 

 opposite state of affairs. It is quite possible a typographical error 

 has crept into the figures given by Dr. Sharpe. This ornithologist 

 considers P. lugubris and P. cryptopyrrhus to be very distinct, 

 but I am unable to find the latter in Shelley's ' Birds of Africa.' 



In some respects Amydrus dubius resembles a diminutive A. 

 ivalleri ; the gray of the head is quite similar, but a trifie lighter, 

 and with a slight purplish rather than a greenish gloss ; the bill, 

 much smaller than in ivalleri., of course, is of very much the same 

 shape, but the culmen is less keeled, and the nostrils are small 

 and circular ; the subterminal notch on the maxilla is as far from 



' Journal fiir Ornithologie, 1876, 93. 

 - Proc. Zool. Sue. Lend., 1S78, 804. 



