‘aaa RicHMonD, New Birds from East Africa. I 59 
Entire head, nape, rump, upper tail-coverts, and whole under parts slate 
gray, with a slight greenish purple gloss; feathers of rump, and upper 
tail-coverts with blackish centres; lores and a narrow ring around eyes 
black ; thighs blackish; back and scapulars glossy purplish black, with a 
slight bronzy wash; wings and tail black; primaries with the greater part 
of the inner webs cinnamon rufous, and a narrow line along the outer web, 
next the shaft, of the same color, but not visible externally when the wing 
is closed; wing-coverts black, like upper surface of wing; lesser coverts a 
trifle more glossy; under wing-coverts and axillaries like under surtace 
of body but without gloss; edge of wing black. Wing, 3.85 inches; tail, 
3.07; tarsus, 80; culmen, .73; width of bill at base, .38; length of first 
primary (exposed portion), .7o. “ Irides light yellow.” 
A single specimen of this interesting bird was obtained by Dr. 
Abbott. It is referred with some doubt to Amydrus, since it 
differs from the known species of this genus in its small size, 
circular nostrils, and concealed (instead of exposed) rufous of the 
wings. It has been carefully compared with descriptions of 
related genera, but differs from the majority of them in having the 
wings longer than the tail. This last character is apparently all 
that separates it from Cabanis’s AZyzopsar! | = Peoptera|. In 
describing his AZyiopsar cryptopyrrhus, Dr. Cabanis expressly 
states the tail to be longer than the wing and to resemble that of 
Calornis metallica; also that the nostrils are small, round and 
open. Dr. Sharpe, however, in a note? on Pwoptera lugubris, 
redescribes the birds after an examination of the type, and gives 
measurements (‘‘wing 3.5, tail 3.3”) which indicate exactly the 
opposite state of affairs. It is quite possible a typographical error 
has crept into the figures given by Dr. Sharpe. This ornithologist 
considers P. lugubris and P. cryptopyrrhus to be very distinct, 
but I am unable to find the latter in Shelley’s ‘ Birds of Africa.’ 
In some respects Amydrus dubitus resembles a diminutive a4. 
wallert; the gray of the head is quite similar, but a trifle lighter, 
and with a slight purplish rather than a greenish gloss; the bill, 
much smaller than in wa//er7, of course, is of very much the same 
shape, but the culmen is less keeled, and the nostrils are small 
and circular; the subterminal notch on the maxilla is as far from 
1 Journal fiir Ornithologie, 1876, 93. 
> Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1878, 804. 
