370 piciD.*:. 



Adult female. Differs from the adult male in wanting the red on 

 the crown, occiput, and nape, these being silver-grey like the rest of 

 the head. Total length 7"5 inches, culmen 1, wing 4"2, tail 2*45, 

 tarsus 0'73. 



Some adult birds, as well as immature specimens, have the under- 

 parts, below the breast, and the under tail-eovcrts faintly barred 

 with dusky, and some examples have all the tail-feathers trans- 

 versely spotted, or the central ones narrowly barred, with buffy 

 white or brownish white ; others from the same locality, and iden- 

 tical in other respects, having these feathers almost entirely uni- 

 form. Undoubtedly young birds have the tail almost without spots ; 

 the back and wings of a dusky brown, with very little olive tinge, 

 and the upper tail-coverts of a washed-out scarlet ; the underparts 

 are darker and more smoky brown or dusky, and with no more 

 distinct bars below the breast than in fully adult specimens. 



Hab. AYest Africa from Senegambia to Angola, eastward into 

 Niam-Niam Country, and north into Kordofau, Senaar, and Abys- 

 sinia *. 



a. 5 <id. sk. 



b, c. cJad. et imm. ; 

 d. 2 ad. sk. 



e. cJad. sk. 



f,ff. c?$ad.;;i. c? 



imm. sk. 

 {. Ad. sk. 



k. c? ad. ; I. Imm. sk. 

 m. Ad. sk. 

 n. Imm. sk. 

 o. cJimm. sk. 



p. (5 imm. sk. 

 q. cJad. sk. 



r. Imm. sk. 



«. cJad. sk. 



t. Imm. sk. 



West Africa. 



St. Louis, Senegal (Z. La- 



l/laize). 

 St. Louis, Senegal. 

 St. Louis, Senegal (L. La- 



ffkdze). 

 Senegal. 

 Eiver Gambia. 

 River Gambia. 

 Fantee. 

 Amamoah, Cape Coast, 



April {Blissett). 

 Amamoah, April {Blissett). 

 Abeokuta. 



Congo. 



Semmio, Niam-Niam 



Country, Aug. 

 East Africa. 



Sharpe Coll. 

 Tweeddale Coll. 



L. Laglaize [C.]. 

 Shelley Coll. 



Sharpe Coll. 

 Sharpe Coll. 

 Purchased. 

 Sharpe Coll. 

 Sharpe Coll. 



Shelley Coll. 



F. Nicholson, Esq. 



[P.]. 

 K. B. Sperling Esq 



[P-]- 

 F. Bohndorff[C.]. 



Sharpe Coll. 



2. Mesopicus spodocephalus. 



Dendrobates poiocephalus, Siipp. (rion Stc), Beschr. neuer abyss. 



Klettervngel, in 3Jus. Sencletib., Extra-Band iii. p. 119 (1842); id. 



Syst. Uebers. p. 80, pi. xxxiv. (1845) ; Heugl. Syst. Uebers. p. 47, 



no. 485 (1856). 

 Dendrobates spodocephalus, Bp. Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 125 (1850). 

 Mesopicus spodocephalus, Bj). Consp. Vohta-. Zygod. p. 9 (1854) ; 



* Heufrlin (Orn. N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 813, 1871) gives the three last-n;imed 

 countries as the habitat of his Fiats spodocephalus, whiob I take to be nothing 



n-»r>>.Q f nan \f fim^^tn^y 



more than id. yoertan. 



