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Vol. xlii.] 44 



Mr. W. L. ScLATER communicated the following notes on 

 African Birds (no. 2) : — 



Genus Ortholophus. 



This genus was proposed by Ogilvie-Grant (Cat. Birds 

 Brit. Mus. xvii. p. 424, 1892), but no type was designated. 



There is some confusion over the taxonomy of the species 

 of the genus which has been straightened out by Finsch 

 (Notes Leyden Mus. xxiii. pp. 195-205, 1903). I would 

 propose to designate as the type of the genus Ortlioloplius 

 cassini Finsch, which appears in the Catalogue under the 

 name 0. albocristatus, but which is not the bird described 

 under that name by Cassin. 



Bycanistes sharpii Elliot and B. leuco- 

 PYGius Dubois. 



There has been a good deal of controversy in regard to 

 these two forms. Dubois (Ann. Mus. Congo, i. fasc. 1, 

 1905, pp. 6-9 ; also Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xxxiv. 1909, 

 p. 129) has written at considerable length on the matter. 

 He identifies J3. sharpii Elliot as a young male oi B. fistu- 

 lator, in which there can be no doubt he was quite in 

 the wrong. JB. Jistulator is easily distinguished from 

 J5. sharpii by its tail pattern. In the former the lateral 

 tail-feathers have the terminal third or quarter white, the 

 basal portion black throughout ; in the latter the tail- 

 feathers, except the two central ones, are white, though 

 there is a little black at the base of some of them. 



With regard to the distinction of B. sharpii and B, leuco- 

 pyffius I find that Gaboon and Angola birds have no trace 

 , of a casque, have traces of black of varying amount at 

 the bases of the lateral tail-feathers, especially the inner 

 ones next the central black ones, and the five outer primaries 

 are usually black throughout. In the birds from the middle 

 Congo and the Welle there is, at any rate, a small casque ; 

 in the males the lateral tail-feathers are white throughout 



