LITTLE PALE-WINGED PKOMEROPS. 121 



and Vieillot's splendid work on the Gilded-birds 

 (Oiseaiix Dores\ its nearest affinity is to the blue 

 species, figured at plate 9 ; but that bird is very 

 considerably larger, and has none of those white 

 spots upon the wings which are so conspicuous in 

 the present species, neither is it enumerated in the 

 Sy sterna Amum of Dr. Wagler. In size and general 

 appearance it makes a near approach to the Prome- 

 rops purpuratus of Burchell*; but the size is still 

 smaller, and the bill, instead of being falcate, is 

 very slightly curved. We may here remark, that 

 we do not see sufficient characters in the proposed 

 genus Rkinopomastes to allow of its separation 

 from Promerops. In reference to what has been 

 said of the form of its nostrils, it appears to us but 

 a simple and a very slight modification of that ex- 

 hibited in the last bird we have described, but more 

 especially in this. In all three the aperture of the 

 nostril is linear and pervious ; the upper part is 

 protected, in erythrorynchos, by a slightly promi- 

 nent rim formed of the substance of the bill, but 

 which is so thin, that when the bird is alive we 

 suspect it is flexible ; for in Senegalensis it actually 

 is so, although, to a casual observer, it appears like 

 that of the former species. Finally, in the bird 

 now before us, this aperture of the nostrils is still 

 narrower ; and the horny lid, which is flexible, is 

 so developed, that, when closed, the aperture can 

 be scarcely seen. It perfectly accords, in short, 



* This seems to be the Rhinopomastes Smithii, Zoological 

 Journal, iv. p. 2. 



