Mr. O. Salvin on the Type 0 /Malaconotus leucotis. 443 
-4- XXXIV.— Note on the Type of Malaconotus leucotis^ Swain- 
son. By OsBERT Salvin^ M.A.^ F.E.S., &c. 
(Plate XI.) 
A FEW weeks ago Mr. B. B. Sharpe wrote to me asking if 
the type of Malaconotus leucotis of Swainson was still extant 
in the Cambridge Museum^ and requesting me_, if so^ to ex¬ 
amine the specimen with a view to ascertaining the validity of 
the species. Not finding any bird so named along with the 
other specimens of Swainsonian Malaconoti, I carefully read 
the description (An. in Menag. p. 341. no. 180); and it at once 
occurred to me that the bird was no Malaconotus at all^ but 
a member of the Ameriean genus Vireolanius. With this 
clue I turned to Vireolanius^ and there found a Swainsonian 
specimen answering to the description so accurately that, in 
spite of the loss of the original label, I had no doubt what¬ 
ever that the type of M. leucotis was before me. 
Looking further into the matter, it became evident that M, 
leucotis was identical with the bird long afterwards deseribed 
by Bonaparte as Vireolanius icterophrys; and thus a ehange 
in the recognized synonymy of this species becomes necessary. 
In the ^Nomenclator Avium Neotropicalium'’ (p. 16) 
Mr. Sclater and I enumerated the five speeies of Vireolanius 
with whieh we were acquainted, being those reeognized by 
Prof. Baird in his ^ Review of American Birds.^ Putting 
aside V. melitophrys, wliich is very distinet from all the rest 
in coloration, we have four speeies of Vireolanius^ the pre¬ 
vailing colour of which is green. Of these the two more 
northern speeies, V. pulchellus and V. eximius, have the sides 
of the head green, and a blue tinge on the feathers of the top 
of the head. The latter is readily distinguishable from the 
former by its yellow superciliary stripe. The two more 
southern species, V. leucotis and V. chlorogaster, have the 
sides and top of the head grey. Besides a common yellow 
superciliary line, V. leucotis has a white streak on either 
cheek, whieh, running from under the eye, ineludes the lower 
portion of the ear-coverts. The lower surfaee of the body 
in V. leucotis is of a much clearer yellow than in V. chlo- 
rogaster. 
