514 
PROFESSOR A. H. CHURCH OH TURACIN, 
— a letter written by Mr. Sydney Lupton in 1873. Mr. Lufton detected copper in 
the ash of seven or eight feathers of an Australian love-bird, Melopsittacus undulcitus. 
He suggested that the plumage of this bird might contain a green cupreous pigment. 
§ 2. Occurrence of Turacin. 
In my previous paper I named twelve species of Touracos, in which I had recog¬ 
nised, by chemical or optical methods, the occurrence of turacin; from four of these 
species I had actually extracted this pigment. Since the publication of that memoir 
several new species have been discovered, and old species split, while the nomencla¬ 
ture of the whole family of the Musophagidse has been revised. The order Picariae, 
to which that family belongs, contains two sub-orders of equal rank, Scansores and 
Coccyges. The Coccyges comprise four families, namely, Indicatoridae, Capitonidae, 
Cuculidse, and Musophagidse. The Musophagidse are arranged under five genera, and 
comprise twenty-five species. I am now able to state that turacin occurs in eighteen 
species, namely, in all the fourteen species of Turacus, in the two species of Gallirex, 
and in the two species of Musophaga. It is absent from the seven species com¬ 
prised in the genera Corythccola, Schizorhis, and Gymnoschizorhis. It is of interest to 
note that the zoological classification of these Birds is now in accord with what may 
be called their “ chemical ” sequence. Formerly, a single Bird destitute of turacin, 
and now constituting the solitary species of Corythceola, was included in Corythaix, 
that is, Turacus ; the anomaly of its presence among the turacin-bearers has now been 
removed. I ought to say that I have had the opportunity of examining specimens of 
17 out of the 18 known species of Turacus, Gcdlircx, and Musophaga with the 
spectroscope, and have recognised the presence of turacin by means of its characteristic 
spectrum in them all. I have, moreover, actually separated the pigment from the 
wing feathers of eleven different species of Touraco ; the species not available for this 
experiment were : Turacus reichenoivi, T. livingstoni, T. schuetti, T. fischeri, T. leuco- 
loplius , T. hartlaubi, and Musophaga rosscr, most of which are very rare Birds A 
The following conspectus of the'genera and species of Musophagidse is taken from 
the account of this family recently written by Captain G. E. Shelley ;t the seven 
African ornithological sub-regions, in which the plantain-eaters are distributed, 
are those which the same most competent authority has suggested to me in a private 
communication, dated 26th October, 1891 ; they may be thus defined :— 
W. Tlie whole coast from Senegal to the Quanza Paver, and inland to 30° E. long. 
S.W. South of the Quanza to the Orange Biver, and inland to Lake Ngami. 
* [Turacin occurs not only in the wing-feathers of Turacus meriani, but in those of the crest, the tips 
of which are crimson; these tips yield up their pigment to dilute ammonia with some difficulty. I have 
extracted turacin also from the red head-feathers of Musophaga violacea. It should be stated that two 
species of Schizorhis ( S. africana and S. zonura) show on their wing-feathers white patches destitute 
of pigment bub corresponding in position with the red tracts of the vanes in the turacin-bearers.— 
Postscript, September 1, 1892.] 
t ‘ Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum.’ vol. 19, pp. 435-456 (1891). 
