1865.] MR. P. L. SCLATER ON LEPTOSOMA DISCOLOR. 683 
home many examples of both sexes of this bird, and I am thus en- 
abled to offer a few remarks upon some remarkable points in its 
structure which have hitherto escaped observation. 
The Leptosoma was first made known to science by Brisson*, 
who describes both sexes in his usual accurate manner from speci- 
mens in the museum of M. Abbé Aubry. Brisson remarks upon 
the obvious differences between this bird and the ordinary Cuculz, 
which might entitle it to constitute a genus by itselff. Buffon 
figures both sexes in the ‘ Planches Enluminées’ (pl. 587, 588), and 
in the text thereto copies parts of Brisson’s description. 
Levaillant also figures both sexes of this bird in his ‘Oiseaux 
d’Afrique’t, and pretends to have met with it in “ Cafferland,” as 
in the many other cases where the falsehood of his statements is 
equally glaring§. Several scientific appellations have been bestowed 
upon the bird upon the faith of these authors, such as Cuculus afer, 
Gm. S. N. i. 418, Cueulus discolor, Hermann, Bucco africanus, 
Stephens (Zool. ix. p. 25), and Leptosomus viridis, Vieill. Ene. Méth. 
iii. p. 1342||. Of these it becomes necessary to adopt discolor as the 
permanent specific designation of the species, although not the first 
given (as Gmelin’s term involves a gross error in the locality), and 
to combine it with Vieillot’s generic term Leptosoma, so that the 
correct name of the bird will be Leptosoma discolor. 
Lesson in 1831 (Traité d’Ornithologie, p. 134) conceived the un- 
happy idea that the older authors had been wrong in regarding the 
somewhat dissimilar sexes of this bird as belonging to the same 
species, and accordingly made of the female a separate species under 
the name Leptosomus crombec. Prof. Reichenbach, not satisfied 
with this, has gone so far as to establish a new genus (Crombus) on 
the female, and to place it in a different part of the system! In his 
‘Conspectus,’ Prince Bonaparte retains this form near the Cuculide, 
but makes an independent family of it (Leptosomide). In his more 
recent ‘Conspectus Systematis Ornithologie’ ** he has removed it 
into the neighbourhood of the American Bucconide. Before at- 
tempting to solve the question as to which of these two views is 
most correct, I must ask leave to call the Society’s attention to 
some remarkable points in its structure, which appear to have been 
hitherto unnoticed. 
The first thing which strikes one as remarkable in examining the 
* Ornith. iy. p. 160, pl. xv. f. 1 & 2. 
+ ‘ Species ista rostro donatur multo rectiore quam relique omnes hujus generis 
species - quod rostrum nequaquam est SUpeTNe CONVELUIN, sed angulosum. Nares 
habet longas, et versus mediam longitudinem mandibule superioris oblique positas. 
_ Ab aliis speciebus insuper discrepat cauda duodecim rectricibus conflata, dum in 
alteris decem tantum nee amplius unquam observavi. Hee species posset suum 
genus constituere.” 
+ Le Vourougdriou, v. t. 226 et 227. 
§ Cf. Sundevall’s Commentary on Levaillant in Kong. Sy. Vet. Ak. Handl., 
N. S:, ii. pt. 1. 
\| ie and in his ‘ Analyse’ Vieillot writes the name Lepfosomus. But Lep- 
tosoma is correct. 
§ Handb. d. Sp. Orn. ii. p. 51. 
** Ann. d. Sc. Nat. ser. 4. Zool. i. (1854). 
