COTILE COWANI, Sharpe. 

 DEANS COWAN'S SAND-MAETIN. 



Cotile coioani, Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc, Zool. xvi. p. 322 (1882) ; id. Cat. Birds iu 



Brit. Mus. X. p. 104 (1885). 

 Cotyle paliidicola, var. cowani, Milne-Edwards et Grandid. Hist. Nat. IMadag. xii. 



Ois. p. 398 (1883). 



C. similis C. jialudicolce ex Africa meridionali, sed ubique saturatior : subtus brunnesceusj abdomine paullo 

 albicante, et gutture avgentesceuti-albo distinguenda. 



Hab. in insula ' jMadagascar ' dicta. 



Adult female . General colour above dark sooty brown^ slightly paler on the lower back and rump ; wing- 

 coverts like the back, the inner greater coverts and inner secondaries rather lighter and with 

 slightly paler margins ; primary-coverts and quills very dark brown ; tail-feathers very dark 

 bi-own, with narrow paler edgings, the outermost feathers very narrowly fringed with white ; lores 

 blackish ; ear-coverts and sides of face dark sooty brown, the cheeks and throat ashy brown ; 

 remainder of under surface of body dark ashy brown, including the thighs ; lower abdomen 

 whitish ; under tail-coverts pure white ; axillaries and under wing-coverts dark ashy brown like 

 the breast, the edge of the wing with paler ashy margins to the feathers ; quills dark brown below, 

 rather more ashy along the inner web. Total length 4'8 inches, culmen 0'25, wing 3'65, tail 1-9, 

 tarsus 0'4. 



Adult male. Similar to the female in colour. The male measures — total length 4' 7 inches, wing 3'6.'), 

 tail 1-9, tarsus 0-4. 



Young. Diflers from the adult in having rufous margins to the feathers of the upper surface, wing-coverts, 

 and secondaries, while the throat and breast arc also sufl'used with rufous. 



On comparing this species with the South-African C. paludicola, it will be found that the difference 

 consists in the darker colour of the Madagascar bird, which is brown uudenieatli, with a well- 

 marked silvery shine on the throat and fore neck. 



Hah. Betsileo country, Madagascar. 



EoH the discovery of this new species of Sand-Martin we ai-e iiiiIcl)tiMl to ihe llev. Di'ans 

 Cowan, an energetic rois.sionary in Madagascar, who occiij)i(Hl his scanty IciMire lime in 

 collecting ohjects of natural liistory in tiiat wonderful island. !Mr. Cowan met witli it 

 in the forest of Ankal'ana, in the western jxirt of the province of iM'isileo. 



The species was discovered too late for it to he figured in the siilendid work on tin- 

 natural history of Madagascar, published hy M. Gnindidier, but it i.-> niciilioncd in 



