Ornithology of the 'Magenta' Voyage. 187 



1866, one of which only was preserved and is now in the Turin 

 collection^' (H. H. G.)' 



Although this species is very nearly allied to L. rufaxilla, 



I yet it appears to us sufficiently distinct to be considered specifi- 



r I cally so. Most probably this is the species called by Azara 



■~!~ " Paloma parda tapodas roxas " (Parag. n. 320) . Quid Peristera 



\ [LeptoptUa] macrodactyla, Gray, List Columba, p. 54 (descr. 



\ nulla !) ? 



During the stay at Peking of part of the ' Magenta's ' staff, 

 for the conclusion of the treaty between Italy and China, in 

 October 1866, Professor De Filippi was presented by Father 

 Armand David, the missionary naturalist who has done so much 

 towards bettering our knowledge of the Mongolian and Mand- 

 churiau fauna and flora, and by M. Fontanier, one of the secre- 

 taries attached to the French legation, with several ornithological 

 rarities ; amongst others the Professor received tw^o birds of par- 

 ticular interest, which both he and one of the authors (H, H. G.) 

 at once perceived to be new. Mr. Swinhoe, who was communi- 

 cated with on the subject, could not identify either; some time 

 afterwards, however, he also succeeded in getting specimens of 

 both from Peking, and described them (Ibis, 1868, pp. 60-62), — 

 one as the type and only known species of a new genus, Ptero- 

 rhinus davidi ; the other as Drymoeca (?) pekinensis. M. Jules 

 Verreaux subsequently proposed that the latter (which is no 

 Drymmca) should be placed in the Australian genus Amytis; 

 but we believe it to form the type of a new genus, which ought 

 to be placed next or near to Laniellus, Swainson, as the so-called 

 Drymoeca pekinensis resembles L. leucogrammicus, Teram. (PL 

 Col. 592), not only in shape, but also in colour. Thus we 

 propose for it the generic appellation : — 



Rhopophilus.^ 

 The only known species of this new genus is : — 



Rhopophilus pekinensis; 



Drymoeca t pekinensis, Swinhoe, Ibis, 1868, p. 62. 



Amytis pekinensis, J. Verreaux, ibid. p. 499. 



* From f5a)^|/■, a thicket, and (piXos, loving. 



