448 On Birds from Central and South America. 
was obtained by the Italian traveller Gaetano Osculati during 
his journey down the Rio Napo in 1847*. This bird was 
subsequently figured by Bonaparte in his leonographie des 
PigeonSj^ pi. 96. 
From the type^ and from the figure of Osculatia sapphirina, 
our bird differs in having the erown of the head of a rich 
blackish purple^ from which the white forehead is sharply 
defined. No such character is to be seen in O. sapphirina; 
but I supposed that perhaps our bird was the male^ the other 
the female_, of the same species ; and so the matter rested^ wait¬ 
ing the advent of more specimens. These at last came. Mr. 
C. Buckley^s recent Ecuador collections contained three ex¬ 
amples, all of them agreeing with the true O. sapphirina of 
Bonaparte. With both birds now before me, I no longer 
doubt that they really belong to two distinct species ; so I 
now characterize the undescribed one as 
Osculatia purpurata, sp. n. 
Supra rufo-purpurascens, capite summo laetissime purpureo, 
dorso splendide violaceo, uropygio nitente cyaneo-pur- 
pureo; dorso superiore et collo postico aeneo-viridi mican- 
tibus ; fronte, striga malari, gutture et ventre toto albis ; 
pectore pallide cinereo ; striga utrinque gulae nigra; 
subalaribus et corporis lateribus sordide cinnamomeis; 
crisso rufescente; remigibus fusco-nigris; rectricibus 
nigris, trium utrinque externarum apicibus cinereis; ros- 
tro fusco; pedibus carneis: long, tota cir. 7*5, alae 5*2, 
caudae 2*6, tarsi 1*5, rostri a rictu 1*0. 
Hab. Rep. iEquatoria. 
Mus. nostr. 
Obs. Affinis O. sapphirince, sed colore purpureo capitis di- 
stinguenda ; macula secundariorum alba quoque absente. 
On comparing this bird and O. sapphirina with Geotrygon 
cristata, the type of the genus Geotrygon of Gosse, I think 
Bonaparte was justified in placing them in a genus distinct 
^ Though a list of birds obtained by Osculati during his travels between 
1846 and 1848 is given by Cornalia in the ‘ Esplorazione delle Regioni 
Equatoriali ’ (2nd edit., 1854, pp. 305-307), no mention is made of this 
Pigeon, which appears to have been separated from the rest of the collec¬ 
tion, and presented to the Paris Museum in 1853. 
