New Kingfisher of the Genus Corythornis. 567 
across Tropical Africa from Senegambia to Abyssinia. 
Besides these, there is a third species, C. galerita, which 
appears to be confined to Western Africa, from Gaboon to 
Angola, but is also found, according to several ornithologists, 
in the islands of the Bight of Benin. 
I have never had the opportunity of examining speci- 
mens of the Corythornis of Princess Island, which by Dohrn 
(P. Z. S. 1866, p. 325), and more recently by Dr. Sharpe 
(Cat. B. xvii. pp. 166, 167), has been attributed to C. galerita 
( = C. cceruleocephala) ; but quite recently I have been able 
to examine five examples (two fully adult and three young) 
of a Corythornis from the Island of S. Thome, collected by 
Signor Leonardo Fea. I was at once struck by the pecu- 
liarities shewn by these specimens — especially by the young 
birds, which were such that I could not possibly identify 
them with C. galerita. My task in the identification, how- 
ever, was not easy, as the Turin Museum has no specimens of 
the last-named species to compare with those from S. Thome. 
As already stated, the young birds from S. Thome are very 
peculiar, having the malar region, the sides of the head, and 
breast both on the middle and along the sides, brownish 
black ; such features are not mentioned as occurring in the 
young of C. galerita or of any of the allied species. To 
clear up my doubts about the status of the S. Thome bird, 
I decided to send three of the specimens (one adult and 
two young) from that island to Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, who, 
being the author of several monographic works on this 
family, and having in the British Museum very rich 
material to make the necessary comparisons, was, no doubt, 
the ornithologist most capable of deciding questions relating 
to the Kingfishers. Dr. Sharpe, after having examined my 
specimens, assures me that they are diff*erent from those of 
Princess Island and of the western coast of Africa in the 
British Museum, adding that the young birds are the most 
curious that he has ever seen. He has pointed out to me 
that, while in adult specimens of C. galerita from Prince's 
Island the light bars across the pileum are blue, and only on 
the back part of the crest of a malachite-green, in the 
