Birds of Southern Kamerun. 57 



with obscure clouded markings of olive and grey concen- 

 trated into an irregular zone round the larger end; over 

 these lie various irregular lines and scrolls of umber-brown, 

 producing a marbled appearance. — O.-G.] 



1754. Phyllostrephus simplex. [Nkes.] 



Bleda simplex Sharpe, Ibis, 1907, p. 459. 



The " Nkes " is not a retiring bird. When I called it 

 "shy^^ in my former note (' The Ibis/ 1905, p. 96) I ought 

 to have spelled it " shj.'' Its peculiar " talk '' is one of the 

 commonest sounds in the bushes about villages, yet it flits 

 about so quickly and liides so adroitly that it is haixl to 

 shoot. And when I said "it goes alone or in pairs," I 

 might as well have omitted the word " alone." I never saw 

 any other bird so continually accompanied by its mate. A 

 pair of them seem inseparable and are always very near 

 each other. When one " talks/' the other chimes in so 

 promptly that the two often sound like one bird ; and in the 

 days before I was fully acquainted with the " Nkes " I must 

 have often supposed that I heard only one when there were 

 really two. 



1756. Phyllostrephus flavigula (Cab.). [Nkes.] 



Bleda flavigula Sharpe, Ibis, 1907, p. 458. 



No. 2386. ? ; oviduct and abdomen of a sitting bird. 

 Bitye, March 28, 1907. 



This bird is called in Bulu by the same name as P. simplex, 

 and my boys, who have shot it, say that it is similar in habits 

 and voice to that bird. My specimen (No. 2386) was caught 

 on the nest. This much resembles that of Pycnonotus 

 gabonensis except in material, for it is entirely made of rather 

 coarse leaf-petioles, with a few dry leaves in the base, and 

 some brown adhesive woolly fibre-like cobweb holding it 

 together on the outside. It was set in the angle of a palm- 

 leaf stalk. The one egg was too much broken to measure, 

 but appeared to be about the size of that of Pycnonotus 

 gabonensis. 



[A broken egg appears to have been of a blunt pointed 

 oval shape and slightly glossy. The ground-colour is pale 



