SENEGAL PIAPEO. 



Ptilostomus S&negalensis 9 SWAINS. 



Glossy black, with transverse linear shades on the tertials ; 

 quills and tail light brown, the latter with the feathers 

 lanceolate. 



Corvus Senegalensis, And Le Pie du Senegal, PL Enl. 538. 

 Le Piapiac, Ois. cTAf. 54. 



IT appears that this singular bird supplies the place 

 of our magpie in the more southern latitudes of 

 Africa ; and yet, although its size and general shape 

 has some resemblance to that bird, there is no real 

 affinity between them. Our magpie, in fact, is only 

 a sub-genus of Corvus^ as is shown by the formation 

 of its bill and nostrils, while this has all the cha- 

 racters belonging to the Glaucopina or wattle-birds. 

 According to the analysis we have made of this sub- 

 family, Ptilostomus is the rasorial genus of the circle, 

 being immediately followed by Crypsirina, which, 

 with the more typical species*, conducts us at once 

 to the genus Glaucopis. It is really extraordinary 

 that all the modern ornithologists, who have written 

 upon these birds, should have overlooked one of the 

 most important parts of their structure : for in none 







* Rufa leucoptera, temnura, leucogastra, sinensis vagabunda, 

 and other species placed in the supposed genus Dendrocitta. 

 Zool. Tr. i. 87. 



