428 Mr. R. B. Sharpe on Dr. von Heuglin's 



albiceps, Sclater (P.Z.S. 1864, pi. xiv.), the author includes the 

 West-African P. obscwa, with a mark of doubt, as likely to have 

 been the bird observed. This, I think, he was scarcely justified 

 in doing. If, as is possible, Atticora griseopyga, Sundev., is iden- 

 tical with A. melbina, Verr., from the Gaboon, this species of 

 Swallow will be found to possess a very extended range. Uirun- 

 do albigularis, from North-eastern Africa (p. 163), is now gene- 

 rally understood and admitted to be distinct from the true H. al- 

 bigularis, Strickl., from South Africa. This is indubitable; 

 and the name H. cethiopica, Blanford, is applied to the northern 

 form. That H. fuscicapillu is a stage of plumage of H. ruficeps, 

 Licht., which I am inclined to regard as an African form 

 smaller than the true H. Jilifera from India, may be expected. 

 The species from Africa is always much smaller, and never gains 

 the size or fine plumage of the Indian bird. Dr. von Heuglin is 

 surely wrong in admitting even for a moment H. cucullata on the 

 authority of Lefebvre. A more untrustworthy authority than 

 this " Voyage " can scarcely be found ; and we should certainly 

 not trust the authors of the ornithological part as the sole evidence 

 for the occurrence in Abyssinia of a bird never before or since 

 observed there. No doubt the strictly northern and closely allied 

 species, A. puella, was mistaken for it. Again, I am not satisfied 

 as to the distinctness of Cotyle minor from C. paludicola. 



On the Kingfishers I have not much to say, except that there 

 seems to be little doubt now that the true Alcedo cristata, Linn., 

 seems to be the Madagascar species, and not the Continental 

 form ; and, again, A. cyanocephala, Shaw, if really an inhabi- 

 tant of Abyssinia, of which Dr. von Heuglin is doubtful, and 

 I am decidedly sceptical, must stand as A. galerita, W. von 

 Mull., as it does in Mr. Gray's 'Hand-List' (p. 96). The 

 author separates A. cyanostigma from A. cristata ; but, as I have 

 elsewhere demonstrated, it is only the young of the latter. 

 Again, he does not seem to be aware of the separation of Ispidina 

 natalensis fi'om the West- African /. picta as set forth by myself 

 (Ibis, 1869, p. 281, and Monogr. Alced. pt. vi.). Can the bird 

 quoted by Dr. von Heuglin as the young male of Ceryle maxima 

 be the newly described C. sharpii, Gould ? The measurements 

 adduced suggest the possibility of such an identification, as well 



