1880.] MR. W. A. FORBES ON DENHAm's BUSTARD. 477 



Dr. Cabanis described a Pytelia ^ cinereigula, of which there had 

 been two specimens lately received at tiie Berlin Museum from East 

 Africa. One of these had been collected at Zanzibar by Dr. Fischer, 

 the second at Mombassa by Drs. Hildebrandt and von Kalkreuth. 

 During my late visit to Berlin I at once recognized in this species 

 Finsch's Pytelia wieneri ; and by the kindness of Drs. Cabanis and 

 Reichenow I was allowed to bring back with me to London a third skin 

 of the same bird, still more lately received, and collected in Angola, at 

 Malange. A comparison of this with our living bird has quite con- 

 firmed the opinion I had already arrived at, so that Cabanis's name 

 must yield to Finsch's^. The Australian habitat is, of course, a mis- 

 take, Pytelia being an entirely African form. Of thered-beaked section 

 of Pytelia, to which it belongs, P. wieneri can only be confused with 

 P. melba and its ally (or geographical form) P. citerior. The dif- 

 ferences between these and the bird under consideration have already 

 been pointed out by Drs. Finsch and Cabanis in their descriptions ; 

 suffice it to say that P. loieneri is at once, inter alia, distinguished 

 from these by its very different markings below, and also by the red 

 of the chin and throat being separated from the greenish-yellow of 

 the lower parts by the interposition of a grey band. In our living 

 bird the beak is bright red and the feet pink ; the irides are dark 

 red. 



5. Note on a Specimen of Denham's Bustard {Eupodoiis 

 denhami). By W. A. Forbes, B.A., F.L.S., Prosector 

 to the Society. 



[Eeceiyed June 2, 1880.] 



The interest attached to the existence, or otherwise, of special 

 mechanisms connected with the habit of "showing off" in the males 

 of the Otididae, together with the fact of the subject of the present 

 note being of a species rarely seen in captivity, so that some time may 

 elapse before a further opportunity of examination offers itself, must 

 be my excuse for this short and imperfect notice. 



On March 20, 1872, two specimens oi' Eupodotis denhami, from W. 

 Africa, I believe, the first and only ones of this species possessed by 

 the Society, were presented by Governor Uesherand C. D. O'Connor, 

 Esq. Of these one lived in good health in the Gardens for many 

 years, dying on May 12 last, after having been attacked by a com- 

 panion hen of Otis tarda that was in the same enclosure with it. 

 Having never observed any signs of " showing off" in this bird, I had 

 always considered it to be a female. This surmise, however, proved 

 incorrect, for on dissection it turned out to be a male. 



' Tliis description is reproduced in the J. f. O. 1878, p. 101. I may here re- 

 mark that, in my opinion, Pytelia, though perhaps a " nonsense name," is suffi- 

 ciently "like Latin" to be retained, and not replaced by " Zonogastris," or 

 altered into " Pytilia," as proposed by Dr. Cabanis {L c. p. 100). 



^ I also found a single specimen of this bird, with no precise locality, in the 

 Museum at Hamburg. 



