260 Capt. G. E. Shelley on the 



M. A. Milne-Edwards^ from the island of Rodriguez^ is only 

 known from a few bones_, which scarcely justify one in assign- 

 ing a place to it in our classification. The other extinct 

 member of this genus is the type A. nitidissima, formerly 

 found in the Mauritius^ only at piTsent known by three 

 preserved specimens, one in the Paris Museum, another in 

 the Museum of Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius, and the 

 third in the Museum of Science and Art in Edinburgh, The 

 three existing species are confined to Madagascar, the Comoro 

 Islands, and Seychelles. Two inhabit Madagascar — A. ma- 

 dag ascariensis, confined to that island, and A. sganz'vm, 

 which ranges also over the Comoro group, having been pro- 

 cured at Mayotte, Anjuan, and Great Comoro. The third, 

 A. pulcherrima, is confined to Seychelles. 



Key to the Species. 



a. Tail blue, like the back. 



a'. Crown red 1. indcherrhna. 



b^. Crown silvery grey 2. sganzini. 



h. Tail red. 



6\ Crown white 3. nitidissima. 



c\ Crown deep slate-colour 4. madagascariensis. 



1. Alectrcenas pulcherrima. 



Le Pigeon violet a tete rouge d'Antigue, Sonn. Voy. Nouv. 

 Guinee, 1776, p. 112, pi. 0,7. 



Columha pulcherrima, Scop. Flor. et Faun. Insub. ii. 1876, 

 p. 94 (ex Sonn.). 



Columha rubricapilla, Gm. S. N. i. 1788, p. 784; Temm. 

 & Knip, Pig. i. 1808-1838, p. 52, pi. 20 (good). 



Erythrcena pulcherrima, Bp. Consp. Gen. Av. ii. 1857, p. 30; 

 E. Newton, P. Z. S. 1867, p. 344; id. Ibis, 1867, p. 359. 



Ptilonopus pulcherrimus, Gray & Mitch. Gen. B. ii. 1849, 

 p. 467. 



Alectrcenas pulcherrima, Hartl. Vog, Madag. 1877, p. 264. 



Entire body, wings, tail, and feathers of the tarsus deep 

 indigo-blue, with brighter blue reflections ; the crop and 

 neck ashy white, shading into pearl-grey towards the head, 

 and into leaden grey on the cheeks and ear-coverts ; fore- 



