502 MR. SHARPE ON MACH/ERHAMPHUS ANDERSSONI. [May 16, 



The Malaccan species coincides with the Damara bird in the form 

 and style of plumage, having the white ring round the eye and the 

 stripe down the throat, but differs in its larger bill, darker colours, 

 brown abdomen, and long occipital crest. There seems, however, 

 to be a difference in the white feathers round the eye. M. anderssoni 

 has a white superciliary line and a white spot below the eye ; M. 

 alcinus has the latter plainly mottled, but has no distinct supercilium, 

 though the feathers round the rim of the eye are whitish. Thus it 

 will be seen that the Damara species must be restored under the name 

 of Machcerhamphus anderssoni, though the genus Stringonyx is not 

 distinct from Machcerhamphus, and thus sinks into a synonym. On 

 the importance of the discovery of a generic form peculiar to South- 

 western Africa and Malacca I need scarcely dwell, as this fact will 

 be recognized by all my hearers. 



The following is a brief synopsis of the genus as it now stands : — 



Genus Machcerhamphus. m 



Type. 



Machcerhamphus, Westerm. Bijd. tot d. Dierk. i. 



p. 29, pi. 12 (1848) M. alcinus. 



Stringonyx, Gurney, P. Z. S. 1865, p. 618 M. anderssoni. 



Clavis specierum. 



a. crista occipitali magna : abdomine brunneo 1. alcinus. 



b. crista occipitali nulla: abdomine albo 2. anderssoni. 



1. Mach^rhamphus alcinus. 



Machcerhamphus alcinus, Westerm. Bijd. tot de Dierk. i. p. 29, 

 pi. 12 (1848); Schl. Handl. tot de Beoef. der Dierk.i. p. 168, pi. 1. 

 fig. 6 (1857); id. Cat. Mus. Pays-Bas, Femes, p. 7 (1862). 



M. paulo major: nigricanti-brunneus : rostro robust ior e : crista 

 occipitali longissima nigricante : regione orbitali albida : ma- 

 cula suborbitali conspicua alba : pectore albo, mento et striga 

 gulari brunneis, plumis gutturalibus nonmdlis etiam brunneo 

 variis : pectore imo et abdomine toto nigricanti-brunneo. 

 Hab. Malacca (Maingay). 



2. Machcerhamphus anderssoni. 



Stringonyx anderssoni, Gurney, P. Z. S. 1865, p. 618. 



Machcerhamphus alcinus (err.), Bartlett, P. Z. S. 1866, p. 324 ; 

 Gurney, Trans. Zool. Soc. vi. pi. 29 (1869); Gray, Hand-1. of B. i. 

 p. 26 (1869). 



M. umbrino-brunnea : crista occipitali nulla : supercilio et striga 

 suborbitali albis : abdomine albo, pectore medio brunneo. 



Hab. Damara Land (A?idersson). 



