416 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Loango. It thus appears to have a considerable range, but we 

 are not sure whether it has been found north of the Equator on 

 the west coast. There is no evidence of its occurrence in India, 

 as suggested by Brisson and Latham, nor does it appear to have 

 been met with further eastward than the Red Sea. At the same 

 time it might well be expected to occur in the Gulf of Aden, and 

 along the southern coast of Arabia. 



We have now to consider the position, scientifically, of the 

 bird which is preserved at Leiden under the name indicia, 

 Latham. If, as has been shown, it is not indicus, which is 

 identical with tricollaris, what is it ? and whence comes it if not 

 from India ? It cannot be said to be undescribed, for it has been 

 described by Prof. Schlegel (Mus. Pays Bus., Cursores, p. 25), by 

 Blyth ('Ibis,' 1870, p. 175), and by Capt. Shelley ('Ibis,' 1872, 

 p. 293 ; and 1875, p. .'382) ; but while the two first-named authors 

 distinguished it from tricollaris, they identified it with indicus, 

 Latham, which they imagined to be a different species ; and 

 Capt. Shelley, who at first mistook it for tricollaris, its nearest 

 ally, subsequently applied the name indicus, in the belief that it 

 was the bird described by Latham under that name.* 



It is to Capt. Shelley, indeed, that ornithologists are indebted 

 for having rediscovered the species, so to say, and ascertained its 

 true patria, which we now know to be West Africa. In Feb., 

 1872, while on a visit to the Gold Coast in company with an 

 equally enthusiastic sportsman and naturalist, Mr. T. E. Buckley, 

 the latter shot a solitary specimen of this bird, the only one seen, 

 on some rushy ground at Cape Coast Castle. Until that date 

 Hodgson's specimen in the Leiden Museum was believed to be 

 unique. 



Capt. Shelley's description of the soft parts (' Ibis,' 1875, 

 p. 382), as being taken from a freshly-killed specimen, is im- 

 portant. He describes it as — " Bather larger than tricollaris, 

 Vieil. ; has the tarsus very considerably longer, has no white 

 forehead, and has on the outer tail-feathers an additional dark 

 bar. [He should have said three additional bars.] The eyelids 



* It was probably by a slip of the pen that Capt. Shelley, in quoting the 

 authority for the name indicus, wrote "Lesson" instead of "Latham" 

 (' Ibis,' 1875, p. 382) ; for Lesson did no more than adopt as a synonym in 

 1828 (Man. d'Orn. p. i>2u) the specific designation which had been bestowed 

 by Latham years previously, namely, in 1790. 



