18/1.] MR. SHARPE ON MACH.ERH AMPHUS ANDERSSONI. 501 



Mr. Bartlett, remembering that at the time the Damara birds were 

 bought a great number of Malaccan specimens were also purchased, 

 concluded that the collections had been mixed, and that thus the 

 Damara bird had come to be credited with a Malaccan habitat. Acqui- 

 esing in Mr. Bartlett's identification, Mr. Gurney sunk his proposed 

 name of Stringonyx anderssoni, and his specimen was figured in the 

 ' Transactions ' as Machcerha>nphus alcinus. Thus the matter re- 

 mained till the year 18G8, when in Mr. Andersson's last collection 

 another specimen was sent home, and passed into the National col- 

 lection, where it now remains. Mr. Gurney requested me to send 

 him my opinion upon the specific identity of this last specimen with 

 the figure of M. alcinus (I. c). I therefore took up the subject, and 

 I found that the bird sent by Mr. Andersson was identical with the 

 one previously transmitted by him and figured in the ' Transactions ' 

 (I. c.) ; but the absence of a crest in both these birds, added to a 

 white eye-ring and abdomen, which did not appear in the Malaccan 

 bird, induced me to suggest to Mr. Gurney the possibility of their 

 being distinct species, while, from an examination of the figures of 

 the tarsi given in the respective works above quoted, I inclined to 

 believe in their belonging really to two distinct genera. Mr. Gurney 

 shortly after visited Leyden ; and having critically examined the Da- 

 mara bird in the British Museum before starting, he told me on his 

 return that he fully believed in its specific and generic identity with 

 the type of M. alcinus at Leyden. Acquiescing at once in the opinion 

 of so distinguished an authority on Accipitres as Mr. Gurney, I al- 

 lowed the subject to drop for a time, till all my doubts were again 

 revived by my friend M. Jules Verreaux, to whom I referred the con- 

 troversy during his recent sojourn in England, when he informed 

 me that I was quite right in insisting on the specific distinctness of 

 the two species, for that he had lately seen both old and young birds 

 of the true M. alcinus from Malacca in Count Turati's collection. 

 This information urged me once more upon the scent ; but I was 

 unable to discover any new facts bearing upon the subject, till in a 

 recent collection formed by the late Dr. Maingay at Malacca, which 

 has passed entire into Lord Walden's hands, I was delighted to per- 

 ceive at last a specimen of M. alcinus. Thus the question was solved 

 as far as regards the correctness of the habitat ; and on comparing 

 the specimen lately received with the Damara bird in the British 

 Museum, I am able to state the following facts. Although the legs 

 are damaged in the Damara bird, there is, so far as we can see, no 

 real difference in the scaling of the tarsi, as would appear from the 

 figures given in the works before mentioned ; so that Mr. George 

 Robert Gray and I quite agree that, beyond the occipital crest in the 

 Malaccan bird (which it is not yet proved that the Damara species, 

 when adult, does not assume), the two species cannot be generically 

 separated ; and I am glad to have had this veteran ornithologist at my 

 elbow, as it is a bold thing to assert the absolute similarity between 

 two genera belonging to such widely distant localities. As regards 

 specific characters we both agree that the birds are quite distinct. 



