K)!!,] collected in Southern Cameroon. 107 



head at tlie base of the bill, but have not nearly so much 

 white as the birds which Neumann has called 1'. h. albifrons 

 (Bull. 13.0.C. xxi. p. 42). All my female examples (Nos. 29, 

 33, 4142, and 4459) have either no white or a very faint 

 'ticking' of white on the forehead. This white spot is a 

 sexual marking of the male, which is beginning to be 

 acquired by fully adult or old females; it is more developed 

 in birds from the Upper Congo region than in tln)se from 

 the West Coast." 



Mr. Bates has now forwarded the birds mentioned, in the 

 above note to England^ together with three male birds 

 (Nos. 4592, 4664, and 554'5) which he oljtained since writing 

 in ' The Ibis' for 1911. The series which are now before 

 me clearly show that Neumann was in error in thinking 

 the white patch of the forehead a subspecific character. 

 Mr. Bates was clearly right Avheu he pointed this out, 

 although it does not appear to be confined to the male bird 

 alone. The three male birds above noted have an equally 

 large (if not larger) white patch at the base of the bill as 

 any birds from the northern Belgian (/Ongo, specimen's of 

 which, named «Z6i/"rons, in Mr. Neumann's own handwriting, 

 are in the British Museum. It is therefore clearly not more 

 developed, as Mr. Bates suggested, in birds from the Congo 

 than in West Coast examples. 



As to this patch being a sexual character of the male, an 

 examination of Mr. Bates's birds from Cameroon would 

 lead one to think that this was the case ; there are, however, 

 adult females in the National Collection from the Congfo 

 disti'ict showing as much white at the base of the bill as any 

 males I have examined. 



The tine series now sent home by Mr. Bates includes two 

 beautiful downy nestlings. 



The range of this species appears to be Sierra Leone 

 [Kelsall), Liberia {Pye- Smith), N. Belgian Congo, Boma 

 [Harrison), Uele River {B. Aleu:ander) , Tingasi [Emin Pasha), 

 Ituri Forest (Camburn), Gaboon (Dm Chaillu), S. Cameroon 

 {Bates). Reichenow, Vog. Afrikas, i. p. 123, includes other 

 localities in the districts mentioned here. 



