

FALCONID^E. 25 



Museum from Mr. Frank, the well-known dealer in birds and 

 animals, and was stated to have been brought from Malacca ; but 

 Mr. Bartlett was of opinion that this locality had been erro- 

 neously assigned to it, and that the bird was really a native of 

 Damara Land, especially as many birds collected by Mr. 

 Andersson in Damara Land had passed through the hands of 

 Mr. Frank about the same date as that at which the Machterham- 

 phuswas acquired for the Ley den Museum; and it was therefore 

 presumed that some accidental confusion of tickets might have 

 caused a mistaken habitat to be asssigned in error to this 

 specimen. Mr. Bartlett's views on this subject were recorded 

 in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society ' for 1866, p. 324 ; 

 and as I concurred in his opinion, the female specimen from 

 Damara Land, now in the Norwich Museum, was figured and 

 described under the name of Macheirhamphus alcinus in the 

 ' Transactions of the Zoological Society/ vol. vi. pi. 29. 



This conclusion, however, has proved incorrect two specimens 

 of the true MacTicKrhamphus alcinus, agreeing with that at Ley- 

 den, having subsequently occurred, an examination of which has 

 proved that the Damara-Land bird, though a nearly allied, is 

 yet a distinct species, and therefore entitled to retain the specific 

 name of Anderssoni which I originally proposed for it. 



Of the two additional specimens of M. alcinus above referred 

 to, one is in the possession of Count Turati, of Milan (as I am 

 informed by my friend M. Jules Verreaux) ; but the locality 

 whence it was obtained has not been recorded. 



The second additional specimen, which is now in the collection 

 of Viscount Walden, was obtained by the late Dr. Maingay at 

 Malacca, thus confirming the correctness of the locality originally 

 assigned to the Leyden specimen. 



Mr. R. B. Sharpe in an able paper on this subject, published 

 in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society' for 1871, thus 

 sums up the distinctions between these two nearly allied species: 

 " The Malaccan species coincides with the Damara bird in the 

 form and style of plumage, having the white ring round the eye 

 and the stripe down the throat, but differs in its larger bill, 

 darker colours, brown abdomen, and long occipital crest : there 

 seems, however, to be a difference in the white feathers round the 

 eye : M. Anderssoni has a white superciliary line and a white spot 



