266 BUBONID.E. 



appearing on the breast fawn-colour, barred with white ; quills dark 

 brown, shaded with rufous on the outer web and crossed with several 

 bands of paler brown, "which are margined above and below by a 

 narrow blackish line. 



Adult. Above deep chocolate -brown, the head blackish and 

 decidedly darker than the back, the upper surface showing a few 

 diamond-shaped spots or bars of white ; the crown spotted, but the 

 wig distinctly barred with the latter colour, most of the dorsal plumes 

 having concealed fulvous bars; least wing-coverts blackish chocolate ; 

 the rest of the wing-coverts rather rufous brown, darker brown at base 

 and ornamented withlarge bars of white externally, as on the scapiilars; 

 primary-coverts blackish brown, slightly washed with reddish brown; 

 quills dark brown, washed at the extreme tip with ashy brown, the 

 primaries banded across with paler brown, producing a chequered 

 appearance on the outer web, where the light bars shade off into a 

 white spot ; the secondaries paler brown, more numerously barred 

 with light brown than the primaries, the innermost being barred with 

 white ; tail dark brown, the centre feathers having four bauds of 

 paler brown, not counting the pale rufous-brown tip, the exterior 

 feathers with five pale bands of brown on the outer web, hghter on 

 the ianer one and inclining to white ; lores and feathers above the 

 eye pure white, the former with blackish shaft-streaks, and some of 

 the latter naiTowly tipped with brown ; feathers round the eye black- 

 ish ; ear-coverts dusky white, barred across with brown ; feathers 

 of the ruff dark brown, with yeUowish-white bars, these white bars 

 much predominating on the lower part of the ruff; chin- feathers 

 dark brown, washed with rufous near the tips ; rest of under surface 

 chestnut-brown, banded across with white bars, each band having a 

 narrow conterminous bar of dark brown, the white band broader than 

 the rufous bands, all the cross bands narrowing a great deal on the 

 under tail-coverts ; leg-feathers yellowish buff, ■with minute brown 

 cross markings ; under wing-coverts ochraceous buff, the outermost 

 barred with blackish, the greater series blackish, at base fulvescent, 

 resembling the inner lining of the wing, which is blackish, with 

 fulvous bars on the inner web, brighter on the secondaries. Total 

 length 15 inches, wing 10, tail 6-5, tarsus 1-9. 



Ohs. This species replaces in Western Africa the S. luoodfordi of 

 South Africa. It is altogether darker above than that species, the 

 head being blackish, and it further differs in the unifonn character of 

 the back and least wing-coverts, which are without vermiculations. 

 No specimen which I have seen as yet of S. tvoodfordi had the broad 

 white bands on the secondaries ; while below the prevailing aspect of 

 the last-named species is buff or whitish, banded with pale rufous, 

 in S. nuchale it is rich rufous with distinct white cross bands. 

 The title was originally suggested by the white bands on the nape 

 appearing much more distinct than in S. ivoodfordi, where their 

 small size and the general pale colour- of the bird renders them not 

 very conspicuous. 



Hah. West Africa : forests of Denkera, in the interior of the 

 Fantee country, and Gaboon. 



