192 1.] collected in Southern Cameroon. Ill 



Phalaropus fulicarius. 



Tringa fulicaria Linn. Syst, Nat. lOtli ed. 1758, p. 148 

 — Type locality : Hndson Bay. 



The interesting occurrence of the Grey Phalarope in 

 Cameroon is worth recording here. Mr. Bates shot a male 

 at Bitye on the 27th of March, 1912. The Grey Phalarope 

 is said in the B. O. U. List of British Birds to be an 

 accidental visitor to North-West Africa ; nothing is said of 

 its ranging in Africa down the west coast. The present 

 is the most southerly record of which I am aware. Mr. P. R. 

 Lowe obtained it at sea near the Cape Verde Islands and 

 Mr. C. Chubb has recorded it from Liberia. 



Canir alius oculeus batesi. 



Canir alius bate si Sliarpe, Bull. B. O. C. x. 1900, p. Ivi. — 

 Type locality : Rio Benito^ French Congo ; Sharpe, Ibis, 

 1904, p. 95. 



Sharpe separated as a distinct species the Rail, inhabiting 

 the French Congo and Cameroon, from the allied Cani- 

 raJlus oculeus of the Gold Coast. In any case C. batesi 

 is but a subspecies of C. oculeus, and indeed is so close to 

 that form that Reichenow unites all birds from Liberia to 

 the Congo under one name. I do not think he is correct 

 in doing so, as tlie Gold Coast birds, of which we have five 

 specimens in the British JMuseum, are distinctly paler olive- 

 green on the u])per parts, with less of a rufous tinge than is 

 exhibited by most of the birds from Cameroon and the 

 Rio Benito. 



The two birds just sent home by Mr. Bates are a male and 

 female (Nos. 4671 and 4426). The female is much more 

 rufous on the neck and nape than the male, which is more 

 olive above and has the underparts paler reddish-chestnut 

 than the female. 



Himantornis haematopus haematopus. 



Himantornis Juematopus Ilartl. J.f. O. 1855, p. 357 — Type 

 locality : Dabocrom, Gold Coast; Sharpe, Ibis, 1904, p. 95, 

 1907, p. 421; Bates, Ibis, 1911, p. 483. 



