4. BATIS. 135 



Muscicapa seneg'alensis, Lhm. S. N. i. p. 327, cJ 9 • 



Le Gobe-raouche a bandeau blanc du Senegal, Biif. Hist. Nat. 0/»- 



p. 528, c? 2 . o .// 



Senegal Flycatcher, cum var. A, Lath. Gen. Syn. ii. pt. i. pp. 328, 



Platyrliynehus velatus, Bo7m. et Vieill. Enc. Meth. ii. p. 385. 



Muscylyia senegalensis, Less. Coihpl. Huf. viii. p. 386. 



Platystira succincta, Lidit. Nomencl. p. 20. 



Platystira senegalensis, Hartl. Oni. W.-Afr. p. 93 ; Gray, Hand-l B 



I. p. 329; Heiif/l. 0,-n. N.O.-Afr. i. p. 447 ; Finsch ^- Hartl. Vog. 



0.<itqfr. p. 317; Skarpe, Ibis, 1870, p. 480; id. Cat. Afr. B. 



p. 43. 

 Batis senegalensis, Skarpe, Ibis, 1873, p. 173 ; id. P. Z. S. 1873, p. 71 ; 



id. ^- Bouvier, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1877, p. 479. 



Adidt male. Crown of the head and nape dusky greyish black • 

 forehead and eyebrow white, produced backwards so as to form a 

 border to the crown, and joining on the nape, forming a conspicuous 

 white nuchal spot : lores and sides of the face, including the eye and 

 the ear-coverts, glossy black, extending down each side of the neck 

 to the hmits of the white nuchal patch ; back greyish, with the 

 slightest tinge of ashy brown on the interscapular region, the white 

 bases to the scapulars and rump showing through and producing a 

 slightly mottled appearance ; upper tail-coverts glossy black ; wing- 

 coverts black, the median and inner greater ones broadly tipped with 

 white, so as to form a conspicuous alar bar ; quills brown, the secou- 

 da,nes darker and more inclining to blackish, the outer ones bordered 

 with white, forming a narrow white line continuous with the alar 

 bar above mentioned : tail-feathers black, obsoletely tipped with 

 white, the two outermost feathers broadly bordered and tipped with 

 white : under surface of body white, with a broad pectoral band of 

 glossy blue-black feathers, the flanks also mottled with black ; under 

 wing-coverts black, the lower ones and the inner lining of the quills 

 white ; biU and feet black. Total length 3-8 inches, culmen 0-5 

 wing 2-2, tail 1-6, tarsus 0-65. ' 



Adult female. Differs from the male chiefly in having the pectoral 

 band deep chestnut, instead of black ; a sHght tinge of rusty colour 

 IS also apparent below the nuchal spot. 



Young. Immatm-e birds generally have the wing-coverts tinged 

 with rusty. Young males at first resemble the old female, and after- 

 wards gradually assume the black band on the breast. A specimen 

 from Casamanee in the coUection resembles the adult male, except in 

 having the back clear brownish grey, with a decided fulvous tinge on 

 the interscapular region. Another bird, still younger, in the Mu- 

 seum, 18 olive-brown above, darker on the head, where it is begin- 

 ning to get black; all the black parts of the plumage are much 

 tinged with brown, and the white markings obscured by a wash of 

 pale rusty fulvous ; the outer tail-feather is obliquely white towards 

 the tip. 



Hab. Western Africa, from Senegambia to the Congo ; N.E Africa 

 and Eastern Africa. 



