On Psophia viridis and Ps. obscura

When Dr. Sharpe wrote the Catalogue of the Fulicariae and Alectorides (Birds, vol. XXIII, 1894) he referred with regard to the above two species to the material in the Leyden Museum, as they were not then represented in the collection of the British Museum. Misled by the wrong determination of the specimen labelled »Psophia viridis Spix” Dr. Sharpe declared both species named above identical, saying, and no doubt quite correctly, in reference to the two specimens in our Museum »I have seen one of the typical specimens of Psophia obscura in the Leyden Museum and could not find any character distinguishing it from Ps. viridis”. But the specimen out of the old collection of Temminck and labelled in his handwriting Psophia viridis Spix, Bolivia” does not belong to this species, but is a true Ps. obscura Natt., of which species our Museum fortunately possesses one of the 3 examples collected by Johan Natterer at Para. This specimen, an old female, is the type of Sharpe’s description of his »Ps. viridis” and differs from the other one Ps. viridis Temm. nec Spix) in having purple tips to the greater series of the wing coverts. Otherwise both specimens are exactly alike; the feathers of the neck are almost black like the under parts, and show only a faint purplish gloss, but by no means »bright purplish reflections” as described by Dr. Sharpe. Psophia viridis Spix (AV. Bras. II, 1825, p. 66, tab. 83), of which we possess no specimen, is, judging from descriptions, an allied but decidedly distinct species. W. Blasius 1) in his review of the species of this genus says: »die Federn des Unterhalses stark metallisch kupferfarbig und hauptsächlich violettglänzend” which is not the case in Ps. obscura. And besides »der Rücken, die verlängerten weichen Schulterfedern grün, mit Rostfarbe vermischt”, it does also not answer to our specimen of Ps. obscura, which has the feathers of these parts (the back and shoulders) only margined with green, and therefore only shining with green in certain lights