Birds from Camaroon. 349 



Nos. 480, 636. S ; 335, 563,635, 1317, 1318, 1372, 1430, 

 1480. ? ad. River Ja, Jan. to June. 



1573. Juv. ; 2101, 2368. S ad. et juv. ; 2184, 2260, 2853, 

 2392. $ ad. Bitje, River Ja, Nov. 1906 to March 1907. 



The young male is like the old female, and has the same 

 dusky streak above the ear-coverts. The head and neck are 

 slightly washed with olive-yellow. 



[This " ngas " is a bird of the old clearings and the 

 neighbourhood of villages, not of the forest. It was very 

 abundant about the villages at tlie Ja, and old nests were 

 to be seen hanging on the bushes everywhere. These nests 

 are retort-shaped, like those of the village Weaver {Hijphan- 

 tornis), but with a very short entrance, somewhat roughly 

 made and formed of coarse material. Eggs were several 

 times found, but they were certainly eggs of different birds, 

 and the old nests of the '^ngas" are apparently used by other 

 species. 



The food is insects, especially caterpillars. In hunting 

 insects, birds of this species are not silent, but make a great 

 rustling of leaves among the twigs. — G. L. B.] 



Phormoplectes dorsomaculatus. 



Symplectes dorsomaculatus Reichenow, Orn. MB. 1893, 

 p. 177 j id. J. f. 0. 1896, p. 31, Taf. iv. fig. 2. 



No. 2341. S ad. Bitje, River Ja, Mar. 13, 1907. 



Nos. 2438, 2439, S ad. et juv. Bitje, River Ja, April 11, 

 1907. 



This species was described by Professor Reichenow from 

 a female bird. The male closely resembles P. insignis, but 

 has the back not so uniformly yellow as the latter, being 

 mottled with black. The chestnut cap of P. insignis is 

 replaced in P. dorsomaculatus by a yellowish chestnut crown, 

 which fades off on the nape into the yellow of the back. 

 The young bird very closely resembles the adult male, but 

 has no black on the sides of the head and throat. 



Sycobrotus bicolor. 



Sycobrotus amaurocejjhalus Cab. ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. 

 Mus. xiii. p. 423 (1890). 



SER. IX. VOL. II. 2b 



