75 [Vol. xii. 



procured by Sir C. Harris near Ankober (Shoa), the other 

 by Mr. Jesse in the Senafe Pass. The last specimen had 

 the bars of the under surface still more distinct than in the 

 Ankober bird. Not one of the three specimens examined 

 could be confounded with Bubo asculaphus. 



Mr. Neumann also made some remarks on the type of 

 Centropus nigrorufus, Cuv., which he had seen in Paris. The 

 species proved to be not an African bird at all, but the bird 

 afterwards called Centropus purpureus, the exact habitat of 

 which was not yet known for certain. The first specimen was 

 said to have come from Mindanao and others from Sumatra; 

 but, so far as Mr. Neumann was aware, no specimen had ever 

 been obtained by any European collector in Sumatra within 

 the last twenty years. 



The type in Paris agreed very well with Levaillant's plate 

 and description of his " Coucal noirou male/' on which 

 Cuvier's Centropus nigrorufus had been founded, as well as 

 Vieillot's Corydonyx bicolor. Only the extreme scarcity of 

 the Sumatran bird and the erroneous statement of Levaillant 

 that he had shot two specimens of this bird on the Swart River 

 in South Africa, could account for the fact that these two 

 totally distinct birds had been so long confounded. 



The African bird must bear the name of Centropus grilli, 

 Hartl., founded on a young specimen, said to have been 

 obtained on the Gaboon ; but it was worth mentioning 

 that this was the only record for this species in West 

 Africa, since all other specimens of Centropus grilli, as the 

 bird must be called now, were collected in South and East 

 Africa, and Mr. Neumann himself was the first to discover 

 the species in North-east Africa. Two specimens were 

 procured in the swamps of the Akobo River, where the bird 

 seemed to occur plentifully. 



The Hon. Walter Rothschild sent for exhibition and 

 description the following new birds : — 



Hypot^nidia kuehni, n. sp. 



$ ? ad. Upper surface deep olive-brown, with light olive- 



