57 

 t 



Family ARDIAD^E. 

 Sub-genus CANCROPHAGUS. Briss. 



Cancrophagus gutturalis. Above a dark slate colour; throat 

 white with a deep black-blue central line, widening as it 

 descends ; middle of breast rusty white dashed with black- 

 blue ; belly pale rufous, with broad longitudinal slate 

 coloured stripes ; wings and tail of the same colour as back, 

 only rather darker. Length 11 J inches. Shot between the 

 Black and Vaal Eivers rare. 



Genus CAEBO. Meyer. 



Carbo Africanoides. Head, back, and sides of neck, dull 

 brown, clouded with black-green; interscapulars dark 

 brown, margined with white ; back, rump, and point of 

 shoulders, black-^reen ; wing coverts and scapulars hoary 

 blue-grey, tipt with white, and crossed near extremities by a 

 black bar, some of them also finely margined with black ; 

 throat, breast, and belly, dull white, the first clouded with 

 brown ; sides of breast, flanks, thighs, and under tail coverts, 

 green-black ; quills greenish brown ; tail greenish black. 

 Length 20 inches. Shot near New Latakoo. 



This may perhaps prove to be the Pelecanus Africanus, at a certain 

 age. 



Note. The names given by the Natives to the objects above 

 described, I have adopted as the trivial ones, whenever they 

 would readily admit of such application, under an idea that 

 they are not so calculated to confuse and mislead as those 

 formed with a view to indicate certain assumed peculiarities 

 in the individual objects. In the proportion in which we are 

 enabled to extend the number of species, in the same propor- 

 tion do we find the appearances which at one stage of the 

 science were considered peculiar to one species to be common to 

 many, therefore until some form of nomenclature be invented, 

 which is not calculated to confuse and mislead by suggesting 

 some such character or appearance in an object, it would per- 

 haps be better to avoid, as much as possible, any reference to 

 such in the name. Every Naturalist must have found the diffi- 

 culty of discovering suitable names for species, and yet no one 

 has endeavoured to devise a system of nomenclature, which 

 could be carried to any extent without difficulty, and be free 

 from ambiguity. 



[123] 



