223 



VARIEGATED, OR CRESTED PLANTAIN-EATER. 



Chizarhis variegata, WAGLBR. 

 PLATE XX. 



Crested ; body above cinereous, with brown spots ; beneath 

 white with brown stripes ; head, throat, and breast browv 

 quill and tail-feathers blackish ; the former with their innt 

 half white ; tail immaculate. 



Le Touraco musophage, Le Vaill. Prom, ct Grimp, pi. 20. 

 Phasianus Africanus, Latham, &c Musophaga variegata, 

 Viettlot, &c. Chizaerhis variegata, Wagler, species Avium. 



WESTERN AFRICA, or rather the intertropical regions 

 of that little known continent, appear almost to Le 

 the peculiar and limited range of the different forms 

 of the typical Musophagidce or Plantain-eaters ; one 

 species alone heing found in the territories of the 

 Cape. The opinion we at present hold as to their 

 place in creation, has been elsewhere enlarged upon. 

 They seem to intervene between the hornhills and 

 the finches ; the passage to the latter heing marked 

 by the touracos, the colies, and the plant-cutters 

 (Phytotoma)) these latter being unquestionably re- 

 lated to the finches. 



The present bird certainly belongs to a different 

 type to the last, and we accordingly adopt the new 

 generic name that has been proposed for it. It 

 differs most materially in the form and substance of 

 its bill and in the shape and situation of its nostrils, 

 although, in all other points of outward structure, 

 they are perfectly alike. The bill, although not so 

 thick at the base as that of Mwophaga^ is less 



