15. ALETHE. 57 



15. ALETHE. 



Type. 



Aletlie, Cass. Proc. Fhilad. Acad. 1859, p. 43 A. castanea. 



Range. Confined to Western Africa. 



Foot of Alrthe castanea. 



Key to the Species, 

 a. No streaks on throat. 



a'. CroTvn tawny ; ear-coverts and eyebrow grey. 



a". No white" tips to tail-feathers castanea, p. 57. 



b". Outer tail-feathers broadly tipped with 



•white diademata, p. 58. 



h'. Crown gri-ey like sides of head and contrasting 



with chestnut back castanotwta, p. 59. 



I. Throat white, streaked with black striaticolUs, p. 59. 



1. Alethe castanea. 



Napothera castanea, Cass. Pi-oc. Fhilad. Acad. 1856, p. 158 ; Haiti. 



Orn. Westafr. p. 73 (1857) ; Beichen. J. f. 0. 1875, p. 29, 1877, 



p. 24. 

 Alethe castanea, Cass. Proc. Philad. Acad.lSoQ, p. 43 ; Earth J. f. O. 



1861, p. 162 ; BuChaiUu, Eqnat. Afr. p. 273 (1861) ; Gray, Hand-l. 



B. i. p. 319, no. 4781 (1869) ; Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 607. 



Adult. General colour above light chestnut, a little clearer on the 

 lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts ; wing-coverts like the 

 back ; primary-coverts and primaries dusky brown, externally 

 margined with chestnut, the inner secondaries almost entirely 

 chestnut ; tail-feathers dark brown, slightly edged with chestnut ; 

 crown of head chestnut, rather duller than the back, and bright 

 orange-rufous in the centre of the crown ; base of forehead dusky ; 

 lores, feathers round the eye, eyebrow, sides of face, and ear-coverts 

 ashy grey ; checks also light ashy grey ; remainder of under surface 

 of body pure white, with faint remains of narrow ashy margins to 

 the feathers of the throat and fore neck ; the sides of the breast and 

 flanks ashy grey : thighs light ashy ; under wing-coverts and axil- 

 laries white, with the edge of the wing grey ; quills light ashy brown 

 below, paler ashy along the edge of the inner web. Total length 7'5 

 inches, culmen 0-75, wing 3-75, tail 3, tarsus 1. 



The bird described is from the Camaroons. The adult specimen 

 from Gaboon differs onlv in having the ear-coverts washed with 

 brown, and in having the axillaries and under wing-coverts ashy 



