IN WESTERN LIBERIA. 



165 



More advanced birds change the red of the lower mandible 

 into black, keeping the red point only till they have got 

 the dress of the quite adult stage. This fact can easily be 

 follovs^ed through all three groups in question , as 1 have 

 before me the mentioned nestling from Liberia, with a 

 nearly entirely red bill , a semi-adult bird from Liberia , 

 another from the Gold Coast, four from Prince's Island 

 and the nearly adult bird from Bissao. In all them the 

 lower mandible is more or less red, and all of them have 

 the red point. One of our 6 birds from Prince's Island ^) 

 (H. dryas , JlsbVÜ.) has the lower mandible quite black , and 

 so Capt. Shelley cannot be quite right when he says that 

 H. malimbica may be most readily distinguished by the 

 color of the bill (ibis, 1883, p. 557). 



The measures in the three conspecies are as follows (in cm.): 



bill from 

 wing tail tarsus front 



Halcyon cinereifrons (Senegal, Bissao) 11,6 — 12,5 9 — 9,5 1,4 — 1,6 5,3 — 6,7 



dryas (Prince's Island) 

 malimbica (Gold-Coast) 



// (Liberia) full grown 



11,8—12,6 

 11,5—11,7 

 10,8—11,7 



7,8—8,4 

 8—8,3 

 8—8.2 



1,6—1,8 

 1,4—1,5 

 1,5—1,6 



5,2—5,9 

 4,8—5,2 



4,7—5 



This species is found in brushwood especially along the 

 water and, in the coast-region, on the Mangrove. 



The stomach of my specimens collected in the forest, 

 contained grasshoppers and Mantidae, those of the Man- 

 grove birds small crabs. 



Iris dark brown, feet coral-red. 



Haley on ha dia. 



Halcyon badius , Verr. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1851. p. 264. 

 Halcyon hadia , Hartl. Orn. W. Afr. p. 33 5 — Sharpe , 

 Mon. Alced. pi. 58. 



Dacelo hadia ^ Schl. Mus. P.-B., Revue Alced. p. 19. 



1) Collected by Dr. H. Dohrn. 



Notes from the Leyden IVEuseum , "Vol. VII. 



