330 QLAEEOLID^ EHINOPTILUS 



B. 8. Afr. p. 656 (1884); Seebohm, Ibis, 1886, p. 118; id. Geogr. 



Distr. Charadr. p. 246 (1888) ; FlecJ;, Journ. Ornith. 1894, p. 381 ; 



Sharpe, Ibis, 1897, p. 517 [Ulundi] ; Bryden, Nat. and Sport, p. 80 



(1897). 

 Rhinoptilus chalcopterus, SJiarpe, Cat. B. M. xxiv, p. 48, pi. iv. fig. 1 



(1896) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 195 (1896) ; Woodward Bros. Natal B. 



p. 181 (1899); Marshall, Ibis, 1900, p. 264; Alexander, ibid, p. 455; 



Beichenow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 157 (1900) ; Whitehead, Ibis, 1903, p. 236. 

 Rhinoptilus albofasoiatus, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxiv, p. 49, pi. iv, fig. 2 



(1896). 



Description. Adult Male. — General colour above, including the 

 crown of the head sepia-brown, the latter slightly mottled with 

 chestnut along the median line ; edge of the wing white ; bastard 

 wing, primary coverts and wing-quills black ; third to tenth pri- 

 maries with metallic-violet tips and a subterminal bar of metallic- 

 green ; the secondaries with a good deal of white on the inner web 

 upper tail-coverts white ; tail-feathers dark brown with conspicuous 

 white tips ; forehead, broad eyebrow, streak behind the eye, sides 

 of the neck and lower throat white ; a chestnut band separates the 

 second and third of these, and the ear-coverts between the third and 

 fourth are sandy-buff with a good deal of black ; chin and upper 

 throat and upper breast brown like the back, the latter bounded 

 below by a black band ; rest of the lower surface and axillaries 

 white. 



Iris dark brown ; eyelid red ; bill black ; base of lower mandible 

 and gape red ; legs purplish-red ; feet dusky. 



Length about 10 ; wing 6-80 ; tail 3'2 ; culmen -8 ; tarsus 2-95. 



Dr. Sharpe has described as a distinct species under the name 

 of G. albofasciatus, certain bronze-winged Coursers distinguished by 

 a white wing bar formed by the margins of the greater wing-coverts, 

 by the dull bronzy-green ends of the quills, and by the absence of 

 the white tip to the tail. 



Both Alexander and Eeichenow doubt the validity of this species, 

 which has practically the same range as B. chalcopterus, and are 

 inclined to think that the more dully plumaged birds are females or 

 males in non-breeding plumage. I am induced to take this view 

 also from an examination of the examples in the South African 

 Museum. 



Distribution. — The Bronze-winged Courser is only a summer 

 visitor to South Africa, appearing about the commencement of the 

 rainy season in November and December, and retiring north again 

 to beyond the Zambesi in the cold weather. It is nowhere a very 



