Mr. E. L. Layard on the " Tchagra " of Le Valliant. 461 



did Le Vaillant mean by " la partie superieure de la tete est 

 d'un 7ioir bruni legerement teint d'olivatre ^' ? Surely not the 

 " black " of Swainson^s description ? I wrote to my most likely 

 correspondents, and could not find that any of them had ever 

 seen a black-crowned bird. 



Just at this juncture a new correspondent, Mr. H. C. Har- 

 ford, of Natal, forwarded thence a small parcel of birds, and to 

 my delight a Telophonus appeared among them. Half a glance 

 sufficed to show it differed from our common Cape bird; and 

 hastily turning it over, I found a " black crown " ! To my 

 mind the mystery is now solved, but I wish to call the atten- 

 tion of naturalists at home, who have series of specimens from 

 Spain, North Africa, Senegal and elsewhere, to this subject, to 

 confirm or controvert my impression. 



The " Tchagra" of Le Vaillant (pi. 70) is not Lanius erij- 

 thropterus, Linn. ; Shaw, Gen. Zool. vii. p. 301 ; Cuvier, i. 

 p. 271 ; Le Pie-yrieche rousse a tete noir du Senegal, PI. Enl. 

 479, f. 1 ; nor {teste Cuvier) L. rutilus, Lath. var. <y ; nor Te- 

 lophonus senegalensis (L.), Hartl., Orn. Westafr. p. 105. 



Nor is it Swainson's T. erythropterus, B. W. Africa, i. p. 235 ; 

 but it is Swainson^s T. longirosti'is {ut supra). 



It differs from the true L, erythropterus in having a more 

 elongated, less deep and broad, and more curved bill, in want- 

 ing the black head ; the crown is never more than a dark brown. 

 The rufous of the wing-feathers is not so rich and clear, the 

 white stripe over the eye is not so large or distinct ; the grey 

 of the underparts * is not so clear nor so distinct from the 

 rufous-grey of the upperparts. The scapulars and tertials are 

 not so black ; and the middle tail-feathers do not show the 

 narrow brown bars with such distinctness. 



The bill, however, is the most prominent difference ; and Le 

 Vaillant's plate gives a very fair impression of the shape of that 

 of the true " Tchagra." 



Dr. Hartlaub [pp. cit. p. 106) says that Prof. Schlegel does not 

 consider T. erythropterus specifically distinct from the birds in- 



* Swainson describes these as " entirely white, but tinged with grey 

 on the sides, and' with cream colour on the belly, thighs, and under tail- 

 covers." No one could call them in either of my birds " white." 



