1873.J OF THE ETHIOPIAN REGION. 613 



Adult. Above cinereous, glossed with metallic green, the head 

 conspicuously crested ; secondaries metallic green, shading into bluish 

 at the tips ; the primaries deep metallic blue, externally shaded with 

 purple ; tail purplish blue, the two centre feathers with a slight greenish 

 shade, all the others tipped with white, the outermost more broadly ; 

 throat and sides of the face clear cinereous ; fore neck and chest 

 lilac rufous shading into ochre on the breast j rest of under surface 

 white, washed with yellowish on the sides of the body and under tail- 

 coverts ; " orbital space violet-blue, sky-blue at external margin ; 

 tarsi grey; iris red" (Grandidier). 



Total length 15 inches, culmen 0*9, wing 5'8, tail 8-5, tarsus 1*7. 



Hab. N.W. Madagascar (Pollen and Van Dam) ; Nossi-be (Von 

 der Decken). 



2. Sericosomus pyrop\gus. 



Coua pyropyga, Grand. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1867, p. 86. 



Closely allied to S. cristatus, but having the under tail-coverts 

 in the adult of a very pronounced tawny colour, and having the 

 white terminal band on the tail double as broad as in true »S. cristatus. 



Hab. South-western Madagascar. 



This bird I saw in the Leiden Museum ; and it seemed to me to 

 be quite a good species. M. Grandidier says that the colour of the 

 under tail-coverts, though apparently a slight, is quite a constant 

 character ; and the parts of the island where the birds live are dif- 

 ferent. The Leiden specimen measured:— Total length 13-5 inches, 

 culmen 0'95, wing 67, tail 8'0, tarsus 1*55. It appeared also to 

 me to be of a paler and much more delicate bluish grey above. 



3. Sericosomus cursor. 



Coua cursor, Grand. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1867, p. 86 (descr. 

 orig.) et p. 391 ; Gray, Haild-1. ii. p. 208 (1867). 



Upper parts of a greenish ash -colour ; throat ochraceous ; breast 

 lilac ; abdomen whitish ; under tail-coverts greyish ; lateral tail- 

 feathers white at their extremity ; tarsi iron-grey ; bare skin round 

 the eye blue, inclining to violet at the external angle (Grandidier). 



Hab. South coast of Madagascar ; Cap Sainte-Marie and Machi- 

 kora (Grandidier). 



I have never seen this species, the affinities of which were not 

 indicated by the original describer. It is possible therefore that I 

 have not placed it correctly in the synopsis. 



4. Sericosomus gigas. 



Coucou verddtre de Madagascar, Montb. PI. Enl. vi. pi. 815 

 (1783). 



Cuculus gigas, Bodd. Tabl. d. PI. Enl. p. 50 (1783). 



Cuculus madagascariensis, Gm. S. N. i. p. 416 (1788). 



Coccyzus virescens, Bonn, et Vieill. Enc Meth. hi. p. 1349 (1823). 



Coccyzus madagascariensis, Temm. Tabl. Me'th. p. 63 (1836). 



Coua gigas, Gray, Gen. B. ii. p. 454 (1846); id. Hand-1. B. ii. 

 p. 208 (1870). 



