G10 Dr. R. B. Sharpe on Birds 



No. 425. <J ad. Efulen, April 5, 1904. 



Dr. Finsch lias recently reviewed the genus Ortholophus 

 (Notes Leyden Mus. xxiii. pp. 195-205), and has recognised 

 three species — 0. albocristatus (Cass.), 0. macrurus (Bp.), 

 (i.e. 0. leucolophus Sharpe), and O. cassini Finsch. 



The character which divides the last from the two former 

 species is the white spotting on the wing-coverts and the tips 

 of the quills. The bird is said to extend from Camaroon to 

 the Congo. 



0. albocristatus Cass, is said to be the Liberian form, and 

 0. macrurus is the Gold Coast form, differing from O. albo- 

 cristatus in the white on the throat and the sides of the neck. 



Dr. Finsch is undoubtedly right in restoring the name of 

 O. macrurus (Bp., ex Temm. MSS. in Mus. Lugd.). My 

 name leucolophus becomes a synonym, as the type of 

 O. macrurus is from Ashanti. But the name of O. cassini 

 of Finsch must also sink into a synonym of 0. albocristatus 

 Cass. 1 do not think that Dr. Finsch can have seen Cassin/s 

 plate and description in the 'Transactions of the Philadelphia 

 Academy' (vol. i. p. 135, pi. 15). Notwithstanding that 

 the specimen described is said to have come from St. Paul's 

 River, the bird figured is the Gaboon bird, with white spots 

 on the wing-coverts and quills, which are also mentioned in 

 the description. 



We have in the Museum a good series of birds from Fanti 

 and Ashanti, but only one from Liberia, presented to us by 

 the Leyden Museum. This example, however, has the throat 

 and the sides of the neck black, not white or mottled with 

 white as in the Gold Coast species, and it seems to be distinct 

 from the latter. I name it, therefore, after my old friend : — 



Ortholophus finschi, n. sp. 



Ortholophus albocristatus Finsch (nee Cass.), Notes 

 Leyden Mus. xxiii. p. 196 (1903). 

 Hab. Liberia. 



43. Scoptelus brunneiceps. (Plate XII.) 

 Scoptelus brunneiceps Sharpe, Bull. B. O. C. vol. xiv. p. 19 ; 

 Bates, antea, p. 91. 



