151 



CHESTNUT-BODIED GRAKL& 



Lamprotomis rufiventris, RUPPELL. 



Head, neck, breast, and plumage (above), metallic-greea ; 

 body (beneath), thighs, and under tail-covers, rufous ; 

 greater quills, fulvous-white on their inner web. 



A SPECIMEN of this Grakle has long heen in our 

 museum, but we were not aware of its being a 

 native of Western Africa, no less than of Abyssinia, 

 until assured that such was the fact by Dr. Riippell. 

 On this authority we shall insert it in our present 

 "Work, particularly since it seems to have been 

 hitherto overlooked by systematic writers. Upon 

 its natural habits we can say nothing. 



In its general size, the Chestnut -bodied Grakle is 

 rather smaller than L. cyanotis, but the wings are 

 very much shorter in proportion. The upper plu- 

 mage, although glossed with coppery-green, is yet so 

 destitute of richness that it seems, in some lights, to 

 be more brown than otherwise, particularly on the 

 head and ears, where there is only a slight purplish 

 gloss ; there are no black spots on the wing-covers, 

 but upon these, the tertials and the tail, are dark 

 transverse reflections resembling stripes. The wings 

 are short, and do not reach further than the upper 

 tail-covers. The under parts, from the chin to the 



