Viscount Walden on the Muscicapa melanictera. 317 
black; remainder of the whole upper surface of the body yel¬ 
lowish olive-green. Margins of the outer webs of all the wing- 
feathers more or less of the same colour, the outer edges of the 
primaries being somewhat yellower. Quills and rectrices hair- 
brown ; inner margins of all, except the first primary, edged 
with yellowish-albescent, increasing in extent with every suc¬ 
ceeding quill, commencing with the second. Upper surface of the 
tail brown, as in the quills; middle rectrices faintly edged with 
the olive-green of the upper plumage, external pairs more de¬ 
cidedly so; under surface of rectrices pale brown, all with white 
or albescent terminal bands, the middle pair excepted. Entire 
under surface rich saffron-yellow, purest on the chin, throat, 
abdomen, and under tail- and wing-coverts. Wing 3*75 inches; 
tail 3*25 inches. Iris brown in the female. Bill and feet black. 
The upper and under tail-coverts are very much developed ; 
the first covering fully half the basal portion of the tail, the 
last extending even further. 
Le Vaillant described his “ Cap Negre ” from six individuals 
sent to him from Ceylon; and the specimens received by me 
from the same island agree entirely with his description. Al¬ 
though the examples were sent to him in the flesh, Le Vaillant 
tells us that he was unable, on moistening the bodies, to dis¬ 
criminate the sexes, in consequence of the decayed condition of 
the organs. A seventh specimen in the same collection he re¬ 
garded as the female, as it only differed from the other six in 
the shade of its colouring, the head being brown instead of 
black, the upper plumage isabelline-yellow rather than olive- 
yellow, the under surface pale yellow; and also by being some¬ 
what smaller in size. These two forms are represented in his 
plate 140, the colouring of the figures having been either origi¬ 
nally very dull or else having since become faded ; the distri¬ 
bution of colour is accurately enough given. Upon “ Le Cap 
Negre” Vieillot founded his JEgithina atricapilla } he having 
instituted the genus JEgithina in the e Analyse 9 (1816) for the 
reception of his Sylvia leucoptera*. In the ( Nouveau Diction- 
* The genus JEgithina would take precedence of lor a, Horsf., if it could 
be satisfactorily demonstrated that the Fauvette leucoptere , Vieill. (Ois. 
de l’Am. sept.) was based upon a specimen of Motacilla tiphia, L. 
