ISH/.] REV. H. B.TRISTRAM ON NEW SOUTH-AFRICAN BIRDS. 8S7 



bird is a trifle smaller tlian that of most of my European and Asiatic 

 specimens ; but the coloration is very distinct. The whole of the 

 upper plumage is a uniform brown black, very much darker than 

 that of C. melba ; the white of the throat is much less in extent, and 

 gently blends into the brown of the pectoral collar. In C. melba the 

 pectoral collar is a narrow gorget of about j inch in diameter. In 

 the Souih-African species it extends for a breadth of about 2 inches, 

 leaving only the abdomen wliite ; while the flanks, white in the 

 northern species, are brown in tiiis. 



It may seem strange that so well-marked a species should have 

 hitherto nearly escaped observation ; but a Swift is a bird more often 

 seen than obtained, and the only author I have been able to ascer- 

 tain as speaking of the present species from personal examination is 

 Levaillant. Mr. Gurney has not received this bird from Natal ; and 

 I am unable to discover a South-African specimen in any museum, 

 except the British Museum, to which I have had access. 



I should have dedicated it to Mr. Layard, to whom ornithologists 

 are deeply indebted for his persevering and almost unaided researciies 

 in the fauna of South Africa, but for Vieillot's name of C.gutturalis 

 having been specially applied to Levaillant's figure. 



Cypselus gutturalis, Vieill. 



Magnitudine C. melbae, sed supra ceneo-niger, necfusnts : gutture 

 medio albo, lateraliter grisescente : pectore toto et lateribus 

 metallice grisescentibus : abdomine medio tantum albo. 



Mus. H. B. Tristram. 



I have also received from Mr. Layard several specimens of a Swift, 

 labelled C. apus, but which differ from our Common Swift, exactly 

 as described by Dr. Sclater in P. Z. S. 1865, p. .599, in their 

 lighter colour above, particularly on the secondaries and scapulars, 

 in the white feathers of the gular patch (which is much smaller, pre- 

 senting a narrow black central line), and in the feathers of the lower 

 back, belly, and under wing-coverts being narrowly margined with 

 white. Mr. Gurney's specimens from Natal have the same charac- 

 teristics. 



As all the specimens known from South Africa agree in these pe- 

 culiarities, I venture to submit that Temminck's MS. name in the 

 Leyden Museum should be recognized, and that the South-African 

 representative of Cypselus apus should be acknowledged as Cypselus 

 barbatus, as has been already suggested by Dr. Sclater. 



Specimens in the same collection have also enabled me to recog- 

 nize a new species of the Saxicoline genus obtained by Dr. Kirk on 

 the Zambesi. Dr. Kirk, in his paper on the " Birds of the Zam- 

 besi Region" (Ibis, 18(J4, p. 318), mentions "Campicola piteata, 

 among the rocks of the Murchison Rapids, common ; in other situa- 

 tions not observed." This is the only Chat obtained in those regions. 

 I possess one of Dr, Kirk's type specimens, and, on comparing it 

 with skins from the Cape of Good Hope, find it clearly a distinct 

 species, though representative of Carnpicola jrileata (Gm.). The 

 dimensions arc smaller in every way ; the white on the forciiead is 



