32 



both described it about the same time under different names. The question of priority between 

 these rival appellations is not an easy one to settle ; but in my " Synopsis of the Galbulidae," 

 published in 1852, I decided it in favour of Mr. Cassin ; and I see no reason to depart from that 

 decision, in which I have been followed by Hr. v. Pelzeln. 



Mr. Cassin based his G. cyanicollis upon examples in the collection of the Philadelphia 

 Academy of Natural Sciences received from Para, and gave a tolerably accurate figure of the 

 bird to accompany his description. Dr. Cabanis published the description of his Galhula cyano- 

 pogon in an article upon " Galbula " in the fifty-third volume of the first section of Ersch and 

 Gruber's great ' Encyclopedia of the Natural Sciences,' to which we have already had frequent 

 occasion to refer. Dr. Cabanis does not here state where the specimens which he describes are 

 to be found, but gives their locality as Cameta near Para. But in the footnote on this species, 

 subsequently published in the ' Museum Heinianum,' we are told that the typical pair of Cabanis's 

 G. cyanopogon are in the Berlin Museum, where they have also received from Lichtenstein the 

 MS. name Galhula cyanocepliala. 



The great Austrian collector Johann Natterer obtained five examples of this Jacamar 

 during his travels in Northern Brazil, at Borba on the Rio Madeira, on the Rio Negro, and at 

 Manaqueri, Tapajoz, and Para on the Lower Amazons. He notes the iris as dark brown, which 

 seems to be the universal colour in this genus. Mr. Wallace obtained specimens of this bird 

 during his expedition up the Capim river south of Para. So far as I know, these are the only 

 two naturalists that have met with this species, which is by no means common in collections. 



In a male of G. cyaneicolUs obtained by Mr. Wallace, the upper surface is of a brilliant 

 metallic green with coppery reflections on the back ; this colour likewise extends over the outer 

 margins of the wing-feathers and wing-coverts, except on the primaries, which are blackish 

 throughout. The upper part of the head is dull black with slight purplish reflections. On the 

 nape, at the posterior edge of the black cap and on the sides of the neck beneath the eyes, the 

 feathers are green suffused with a brilliant bluish purple. The whole under surface is of a deep 

 chestnut-red, which is rather narrowed at the neck by the advancement of the purple colour 

 above mentioned. The tail is generally of a chestnut-red ; but the two middle tail-feathers are 

 green like the back above, and dull green below ; the others are all broadly margined with the 

 same brilliant green externally. The diminutive outer pair of rectrices are about 1'2 inch in 

 length from the insertion ; they are rufous, with a slight greenish blotch at the tip. The bill and 

 naked lores are yellow, with the apical half of the upper mandible blackish. The feet are yellow, 

 and the claws black. 



On the whole this Jacamar is certainly most nearly allied to G. alhirostris, and has the same 

 general structure. Burmeister, in his ' Systematic Review of the Animals of Brazil,' appears to 

 have mistaken it for that species, and to have described it under that name. 



The figure (Plate VIII.) is taken from the male specimen above described, which is the only 

 one in my collection. 



