Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/446

 of the head. The feathers from the bill, and on the crown of the head, are long and pointed, and appear capable of being erected into a crest. On the fore part of the head is a slight tinge of the colour of the back: but the predominant colour of the head, neck, and all the under parts, is a fine rufous lilac, plain on the head and nape, but streaked with white down the shafts on the other parts. The rump and tail coverts above and below partake more of violet; a faint lilac just tinging the thighs and under coverts of the wings. The smaller wing coverts above are of a bright glossy lilac, which in the greater coverts is rather more mingled with brown, so as to reduce its splendour; the ridge of the wing and greater quills of deep blue, which towards the tips becomes greenish. The margins of the inner webs and the very tips are black. The two middle feathers are dingy green; the rest blue, shading into black on the inner webs; the tail itself is square at the end: the legs are strong and pale, claws brown. I am not quite decided about this bird, but it is evidently so nearly allied at least to Cora; afra, if not a variety of that bird, that I cannot venture to separate it, especially as I have not seen the latter.

No. 8. Bucco Saltii. Abyssinian Barbet. As this bird appears to me evidently of a species hitherto undescribed, I have ventured to annex to it the above name, and am happy in the opportunity of thus paying a merited compliment to the public exertions of its discoverer, while I at the same time express my own sense of his kindness, for the liberal communication of his collection of Abyssinian birds. The present species appears to rank very near the doubtful barbet of Latham, from which however it is clearly distinct. It is but little above seven inches in length, the female rather less. The bill is of a blackish horn-colour, about nine eighths of an inch from the gape to the tip, and about three quarters of an inch in thickness at the base. It has two notches in the edge of the upper mandible, and a sort of indentation in the lower mandible, as if to receive the foremost notch; but there is no appearance whatever of any channel on the bill as in Bucco dubius. The general colour of the plumage of the body, above and below, as also of the tail, is black; but the whole face taking in the front, part of the crown, beyond the eyes, ears, and as far as the breast, is covered with narrow feathers of a sharp bristly nature, and of a bright red colour. The wings are dusky, the lesser coverts margined with dirty white on the outer web, and the quills with yellowish green, except towards the tips of the primaries. The under wing coverts, and the inner margins of the quills towards the base are white. The legs and claws are dark.

No. 11. Oriolus Galbula, Var. Size rather above that of a blackbird; length something under nine inches; bill of a reddish brown, an inch and a quarter long. Plumage of the head and neck, the whole body, the lesser wing coverts, and the tail with the exception of the four middle feathers,