468 MR. w. A. FORBES ON LEPTOSOMA DISCOLOR. [June 15, 



not very divergent, but is dilated terminally, and develops a recur- 

 rent hook, which, however, is not very distinct. There is a circlet 

 of feathers round the vent, and a short tract of feathers behind it, 

 on each side of the fleshy part of the tail, continuing the direction 

 of, though quite separate from, the main inferior tract of its side. 



The feathering of the head above is continuous, and from it the 

 anterior moiety of the dorsal tract runs, being anteriorly continuous 

 at the sides, as already noted, with the inferior tracts, along the 

 dorsal median line of the neck, as a rather broad, thickly feathered 

 band, which forms a strong interscapular fork, just as in Coraciasnai 

 the Parrots, the ends of the fork lying about ^ inch anterior to the 

 posterior extremities of the two scapulte. The posterior moiety has 

 also a forked form, the two arms enclosing a fairly broad naked 

 median space, and only uniting about 1 inch in front of the oil- 

 gland, the united tract so formed ceasing altogether about 5 inch in 

 front of that organ. This posterior fork is very narrow anteriorly, 

 not more than two feathers wide ; indeed, for the first two or three 

 rows each arm consists of only one feather in each row, and the two 

 arms run in between the forks of the anterior moiety, just as in the 

 Parrots, Coracias, and some other birds. Posteriorly the fork 

 widens, and becomes connected closely with the scattered contour- 

 feathers which are found outside it, over the space between the 

 dorsal tract proper and the lumbar powder-down patches, so that on 

 the rump the dorsal tract appears to consist of five or six rows of 

 feathers on each side of the median line. There is a very strongly 

 feathered and broad band of feathers over the knee, being the ante- 

 rior end of the lumbar tract of its side ; this tract is quite distinct 

 from all others but the crural, which are much v\eaker and clothe 

 the leg as far as the " ankle." The powder-down patches, one on 

 each side, lie between the posterior portion of the dorsal tract and 

 the lumbar tracts. They form elongated patches, extending forwards 

 over the femur as far as the sartorius muscle, and backwards to 

 within \ inch of the vent ; their dorsal border is parallel to the 

 dorsal tract, the ventral to the lumbar ones. On the inside of the 

 skin they are conspicuous as dark grey patches, foruied by the 

 closely aggregated insertion of the feathers of which they are com- 

 posed, these lying at a less angle with the skin tlian the contour- 

 feathers. Nitzsch^ has described the pterylosis in Coracias garruJa 

 and C. indica, with figures of that of the former, and in Eurystomus 

 gularis. I have examined the first-named species in the flesh, and 

 also a skin of Atelornis crossleyi. In all essential respects, as will 

 be seen by a comparison of the above description with Nitzsch's 

 figures of Coracias garrula, Lejptosoma is essentially Coraciine, though 

 it differs from all others of that group in its possession of powder- 

 down patches^. 



1 Pterylogr. (Eay Sec. ed. p. 89). 



^ I may here mention that Atelornis crossleyi differs as regards its pterjlosis 

 but slightly from the Coraciine type. It has the same interrupted dorsal tract, 

 each half having a furcate form ; but liere the interscapular fork is very short 

 and narrow, and does 9wt enclose the anterior part of the posterior fork, 



