PYCNONOTUS CAPENSIS. 
(GOLD-VENTED BULBUL.) 
Turdus merula fusca capitis bone spet, Briss. Orn. ii. p. 259, pl. 27. fig. 3 (1760). 
Turdus capensis, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 295 (1766, ex Briss.). 
Le Brunet du Cap de Bonne espérance, Montb. Hist. Nat. Ois. iii. p. 390 (1775). 
Le Brunet, Levaill. Ois. d’Afr. ii. p. 36, pl. 105 (1802). 
Pycnonotus capensis (L.), G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, p. 29 (1840). 
Pycnonotus chrysorrheus, Thompson, Ann. Nat. Hist. 1845, xv. p. 308, nec Temm. 
Turdus aurigaster, Yaxr. Brit. Birds, Suppl. p. 15 (1845, nec Vieill.). 
Pycnonotus aurigaster, G. R. Gray, Cat. of Brit. Birds, p. 84 (1850, nec Vieill.). 
Ixos capensis (L.), Bonap. Consp. Gen. Ay. p. 267 (1850). 
Figura unica. 
Levaillant, J. c. 
Ad. capite, collo, dorso et uropygio sordidé umbrinis, capite vix saturatiore, frontis et pilei plumis vix elon- 
gatis: alis et caudd saturaté umbrinis: gula et gutture dorso concoloribus, pectore et hypochondriis 
pallidioribus: abdomine centrali albido, versus crissum puré albo, plumis versus apicem vix sulphureo 
tinctis: crisso et subcaudalibus leté flavis: pedibus et rostro nigris: iride rufescenti-fuscé, marginibus 
palpebrarum sordidé rufescentibus, 
Adult (Cape of Good Hope). Head, neck, back, and rump uniform umber-brown, the head rather darker 
Obs. 
Ir is 
than the rest of the upper parts; feathers on the forehead and crown slightly elongated; wings and tail 
dark umber-brown, the latter with very indistinct bars (such as are observable in Locustella luscinioides) , 
which, however, can only be seen in certain lights; throat and neck in front similar in colour to the 
back, becoming gradually paler on the breast and flanks, the centre of the abdomen being dull whitish, 
but the lower part becoming almost pure white, tinged with sulphur-yellow towards the vent ; vent and 
under tail-coverts bright king’s yellow, edge of the wing sulphur-yellow; legs and bill black ; iris deep 
brown with a reddish tinge, edge of the eyelids deep red. ‘Total length about 7-75 inches, culmen 0°8, 
wing 3°55, tail 3-5, tarsus 0°9. 
Captain Shelley, who has shot the present species in South Africa, assures me that the edge of the 
eyelid is always dull dark red, whereas in Pycnonotus nigricans it is blackish. In Levaillant’s plate of 
Le Brunoir (Ois. d’Afr. pl. 106. fig. 1), on which P. nigricans was based, the edge of the eyelid is given 
as red (which is evidently an error); and at first I was inclined to believe that this figure might repre- 
sent true P. capensis ; but after a careful comparison with skins I found that this was not the case, but 
that the only difference between it and P. nigricans is the coloration of the edge of the eyelid. 
with some hesitation that I include the present species as belonging to the Western 
Palearctic avifauna ; for its only claim to a place in it rests on the single occurrence in Ireland. 
However, as Professor Newton retains it in his edition of Yarrell’s ‘British Birds, I have 
deemed it best not to exclude it from the present work. ‘The record of the Irish occurrence is 
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