IRRISOKID^E EHINOPOMASTUS 17 



had determined to oust the Barbet and commandeer the premises 

 for themselves. During the next three weeks I paid several 

 visits, but was not satisfied that incubation had commenced. On 

 October 22 I carefully approached the nest ; the cock bird was on 

 sentry and, as soon as I showed myself, flew off with chattering, 

 warning the hen who popped her head out of the hole to ascertain 

 the cause ; being unable, however, to see me she disappeared. 

 After waiting some little time I climbed the tree and started cutting 

 away the nest with an axe, but it was not until striking several 

 blows that the hen flew out of the nest, which I found to contain 

 two elongate eggs of a beautiful verditer, measuring 1-0 x 0-6. 



" The clutch presumably consists only of two eggs as they were 

 slightly incubated, and instead of being pure white and round, as 

 stated by Sharpe and Layard, they are verditer and distinctly 

 elongate. The nest was not lined in any way. 



" Collectors might easily be mistaken in the identification of 

 eggs, unless very careful, when taking them from holes in trees ; I 

 have frequently noticed holes that are constructed by one species 

 of bird, yet laid in by another, and even occasionally by both birds 

 at one and the same time." 



Genus II. RHINOPOMASTUS. 



Type. 

 Rhinopomastus, Smith, Zool. Journ. iv, p. 2 (1828) E. cyanomelas. 



Bill very slender and much curved; nostrils elongated and 

 completely overhung by a horny membrane or operculum. Other 

 characters as recorded above in the family diagnosis. This genus, 

 containing three species, is confined to southern, central, and east 

 Africa. Only one species is found in South Africa. 



384. Rhinopomastus cyanomelas. Scimitar-bill. - 



Le Promerops namaquois, Temm. Cat. Syst. du Cabinet d'Orn. pp. 74, 

 217- (1807; I ; Lcvaill. Hist. Nat. Prom. pis. 5, 6 (1807). 



Falcinellus cyanomelas, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxviii, p. 165 

 (1819). . 



Upupa purpurea, Burchell, Travels, i, p. 326 (1822). 



Rhinopomastus smithii, Jardine, Zool. Journ. iv, p. 1, pi. 1 (1828). 



Rhinopomastus cyanomelas, Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. pp. 138, 

 809 (1875-84) ; Barratt, Ibis, 1876, p. 199 [Marico] ; Butler, Feilden, 

 and Eeid, Zool. 1882, p. 207 [Ladysmith] ; W. Ayres, Ibis, 1887, 



2 VOL. in, 



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o<*/ , rt 

 61 



