Male. Forehead, crown, and liind neck shining scarlet ; wliole of back, lores, cheeks, chin 

 throat, and under-parts glossy black ; basal half of the under sides of the inner webs of 

 the primaries greyish-white ; primary quills and those of the tail white on the under 

 side; iris dark brown; bill and feet black : length 7'55, wing 4-2, tail 2-9, tars. I'O 

 culm. 0-9. 



Female. Similar to the male, but with a broad black frontal band which passes over and 

 beyond the eye, and united to the black ear-coverts and cheeks ; iris dark brown ; bill 

 and feet black : length 7'2, wing 4'0, tail 2-85, tars. 0"9, culm. 0'9. 



Young ■niah'. Dull black ; no black frontal band ; crown and hind neck dull red, bases of 

 the feathers slaty-grey ; chin, throat, and upper part of breast slightly tinged with red. 



Young female. Dull black, frontal band, lores, cheeks, and ear-coverts reddish-brown, 

 crown and hind neck pale scarlet with whitish bases ; chin, throat, and upper part of 

 breast slightly tinged with red. 



Observ. After a careful examination of sixteen specimens of males, females, and young, I 

 have cpme to the conclusion that the birds from Fernando Po form a local race, and can 

 be readily distinguished by the much paler scarlet or orange-red of the crown and hind 

 neck, and by the greater extent of the white at the base of the feathers ; otherwise they 

 are identical with the birds from the mainland of West Africa. 



Captain G. E. Shelley very kindly lent me two young females of this species, in which the 

 frontal band, lores, cheeks, and ear-coverts are of a most peculiar reddish-brown ; the 

 tips of the feathers are tinged with faint scarlet. The base of the culmen and under 

 margins of the lower mandible in the youngest bird are yellowish. 



In 1802 Daudin described two birds of this genus under the name of 

 Tanagra malimbica, male and female, one with a crest, and the other with 

 a black frontal band without a crest ; and in the same year Mr. George 

 Shaw redescribed the female under Daudin 's appellation ; in 1805 Vieillot 

 refigured the two birds in his elaborate work ' Oiseaux Chanteurs ' (pi. xlii. 

 and xliii.) under the name of Le Malimbe hupp^ (Malimbus cristatiif) . 

 male et femelle, and in 1807 Temminck distintruished the female above 

 mentioned as Le republicain a capuchon ecarlate {male), but the female, 

 which he characterises thus, La femelle est entierement tViin noir rembruni, is, 

 in my opinion, Floceus mgerrimus, VieilL, owing to the absence of the 

 scarlet crown and hind neck, which is so conspicuous in the male, female, 

 and young of the species now under consideration. 



Following up the synonymy of this bird, which is very extensive, 

 varied, and, to say the least, rather complicated, I here transcribe Mr. 

 D. G. Elliot's researches (Ibis, 1879, p. 461). He says: "Somewhere 



