444 Mr. O. Salvin on the Type of Malaconotns leucotis. 
About the time that my attention was first called to this 
subject^ Mr. Buckley sent us two beautiful skins of V. leucotis 
from Sarayacu^ in Ecuador. From one of these the accom¬ 
panying plate has been prepared, as the Swainsonian speci¬ 
men is in hardly a fit state for being figured, the plumage 
being abraded, as well as faded from exposure. Moreover the 
origin of Swainson^s specimen is quite unknown, the species 
having been doubtfully set down by Swainson as an inhabitant 
of Africa, probably from a general resemblance in colour 
the bird bears to some members of the truly African genus 
Laniarius, 
The geographical ranges attributed to V. leucotis and V. 
chlorogaster are hardly satisfactory. Bonaparte stated that 
the former was from the Bio Negro; to the latter .he gave 
the vague habitat South America*. 
The head of the Huallaga, East Peru, and Cayenne,^^ are 
the habitats Prof. Baird gives to V. leucotis and of this species, 
as already stated, we have recently received specimens from 
Sarayacu, in Ecuador. Eastern Peru is set down in Mr. 
Sclater^s ^ Catalogue of American Birds ^ as the origin of his 
specimen of V. chlorogaster and this statement is followed by 
Prof. Baird in his ^ Beview,^ on the evidence of the same skin. 
The skin in question (which is marked S. America,^^ Ver- 
reaux) has all the appearance of a Cayenne skin, the legs being 
tied together and the specimen shaped in the form well known 
as peculiar to the preparations from that country. If this 
surmise be correct, as I believe it to be, and if the Cayenne 
origin of one of the specimens of V. leucotis examined by 
Prof. Baird be, as seems very probable, incorrect, we have 
the distribution of these two species as follows :— 
V, chlorogaster. Peculiar to Cayenne. 
V. leucotis. Banging from the Bio Negro to Ecuador and 
the upper waters of the Huallaga. 
This account of the ranges of these nearly allied species 
seems to be more probably correct than that which has been 
hitherto advanced. 
^ In the register of the British Museum, where this type exists, it 
is recorded as having come from Cayenne. 
