Vol. xliii.] 140 



in a new genus all to itself, as it seems to be utterly unlike 

 any other species. Mr. Lowe made a skeleton of this bird, 

 and has also preserved one in spirit, so that we should be able 

 to determine its generic characters satisfactorily." 



Dr. Hartert remarked that the majority of the species 

 enumerated in Oustalet's list of birds from the Loss Islands 

 had never occurred there at all. He himself had been on 

 the islands, and he was quite satisfied that the Starling 

 (C iris) which Mr. Lowe had obtained did not inhabit the 

 islands. There was no primaeval forest there, and there was 

 no doubt that the trade-skins of C. iris which were in the 

 museums of Tring, Paris, and London had come originally 

 from the interior of French Guinea, as Mr. Bannerman had 

 stated, though it was quite possible they had been shipped 

 from the Loss Islands ! 



Mr. George L. Bates exhibited a fine new Turaco which 

 he had obtained during his last journey through the 

 highlands of Cameroon and Nigeria, which he proposed to 

 place in a new genus and name 



Proturacus bannermani, gen. et sp. no v. 



Plumage remarkably like that of Turacus erythrolopJms, 

 but bill and nostrils very different from those of that species 

 and of all other species of Turacus — hence the above generic 

 name is proposed. 



Generic Characters : Descrip)tion of hill and nostrils, — 

 Bill larger, or at least higher, than in any species of 

 Turacus^ much compressed, with a thin sharp culmen. 

 Curve of the culmen from base to tip forming a complete 

 quarter-circle. Colour of culmen not uniform or merely 

 shading off from yellow to red or brown as in all species of 

 Turacus^ but with the dark red of the upper part, down as far 

 as the level of the nostrils,, sharply distinct from the yellow of 

 the lower part. Nostril linear, nearly one-third as long as 

 the bill, with a slight groove continuing its line forward 

 from the front angle. Hinder angle of the nostril covered 

 by the appressed small loral feathers, which are not as long 



