351 
the Racquet-tailed Rollers . 
head, throat, and breast pale brownish buff, broadly striped 
with white, and without any trace of blue, much as in Cora « 
cias ncevius , but much paler. 
On referring to Trimen’s original description of Coracias 
spatulatus (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1880, p. 31), I find that he states: 
Ci throat, breast, belly, thighs, and under wing- and tail- 
coverts pale bright verditer-blue, varied on the lower throat 
and breast by lilacine cinnamon-brown webs, leaving the 
shaft-stripes of the blue ; cheeks and ear-coverts mixed lilac 
and verditer-blue ; sides of neck coloured like the back ; sides 
of breast dull sandy brownish, with bluish-white shaft- 
stripes.” Thus Trimen’s 0. spatulatus is very different from 
Canon Tristram’s specimen, and also from the two adult birds 
in the British Museum, but somewhat resembles the third 
(young) specimen in that collection, which appears to me to 
be in all probability the young of the true G. spatulatus . 
On referring to Professor Barboza du Bocage’s description of 
Coracias dispar , from Caconda (Jorn. Sc. Lisb. xxviii. 
p. 227, 1880), I find that it agrees exactly with the two birds 
from Caconda and the Umvuli River, as he describes the 
underparts as blue (“ subtus thalassinus ”) ; and the species 
with ‘the underparts blue, as in 0. abyssinicus , will stand 
therefore as Coracias dispar , Bocage. The bird in Canon 
Tristram’s collection is so very distinct from both Coracias 
spatulatus and Coracias dispar that I cannot do otherwise 
than give it a name, and propose to call it Coracias Weigalli , 
and give the description of it as follows : — 
Pileo et nucha cum dorso antico sordide olivaceis ; fronte, mento et 
superciliis albis ; dorso postico, scapularibus et secundariis intimis 
dilute cinnamomeis ; aliis et cauda sicut in Cor ado dispare eolo- 
ratis ; capitis lateribus, gula et pectore toto pallide fusco-cervinis, 
conspicue albo striatis et indistincte vinaceo tinctis ; abdomine 
imo, subcaudalibus et subalaribus pallide turcino-caeruleis ; rec- 
tricibus extimis valde elongatis et spatulatis. 
Long. tot. 13*0, culm. 1*25, alee 6*3, caudae 8*3, tarsi 078. 
It is unfortunate that I have not had an opportunity of 
examining the type of Coracias spatulatus , which is, I believe, 
in the museum at Cape Town ; and the material at hand is so 
very meagre that it is impossible at present to say much 
respecting the geographical range of these Racquet-tailed 
Rollers. Besides the specimens above referred to there are 
examples in the Lisbon Museum from West Africa which 
are doubtless all referable to C. dispar • there are also several 
in the Berlin Museum obtained by Boehm at Kakoina, and 
it will be interesting to ascertain to which form these speci- 
mens belong. 
