216 MDSOPHAGID^ TUBACUS 



effect can be produced artificially by rubbing the feathers with 

 soapy ■water, when they can be reduced to a dull white or grey 

 colour. The bird, moreover, has the power of renewing the turacin 

 of the wings, and very shortly after the plumage becomes dry the 

 colour is as brilliant as ever. 



Turacin was carefully analysed by Professor Church and was 

 found to contain in addition to the usual carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen 

 and oxygen, about 7 per cent, of copper, a substance not usually 

 found in organic compounds and never in such large quantities. 

 Many suggestions have been put forward as to whence the bird 

 derives this metal, but it is probable that the presence of small 

 quantities of it in plantains, bananas, and other fruits on which 

 these birds feed is sufficient to account for the matter without 

 having recourse to suppositions about their swallowing grains of 

 malachite and other copper ores as has been suggested. 



480. Turacus livingstonii. Livingstone's Lourie. 



Turacus livingstonii, Gray, P. Z. 8. 1864, p. 44 ; Shelley, Cat. B. M. 

 xix, p. 439 ; id. B. Afr. i, p. 119 (1896) ; Sharpe, Ibis, 1897, p. 499 

 [Zululand] ; Woodward Bros. Natal B. p. 123 (1899). 



Corythaix livingstonii, KirJc, Ibis, 1864, p. 328 ; Sharpe, ed. Layard's 

 B. 8. Afr. p. 143 (1875). 



Turacus schalowi, Marshall, Ibis, 1900, p. 254 (Mashonaland). 



Description. — Head, neck, and chest, grass-green, feathers of 

 the crest and nape tipped with white ; front feathers of the crest 

 elongated about 35 to 4-0 inches, but rapidly shortening behind 

 so that when elevated the crest is very high in front and falls very 

 rapidly behind, whereas in T. corythaix the crest is evenly rounded 

 and nearly of the same length throughout ; white patch in front 

 and below the eye not so extensive as in T. corythaix, rest of the 

 back, wings and tail as in C. corythaix. 



Bill orange ; iris brown ; bare skin round the eye bright red ; 

 legs black. 



Length about 17'0 ; wing 6-75; tail 7-0; visible culmen 0-60; 

 tarsus 1'60. 



Distribution. — East Africa from Igogo in German territory south- 

 wards through Nyasaland and Mozambique to Zululand. If, as I 

 cannot help thinking will eventually prove to be the case, Turacus 

 schaloiui is the same bird, its range will extend to Mossamedes and 

 Benguela on the western side of Africa. 



