222 ZOOLOGICAL RESEARCHES 



verdigris; in that from Robertsport the ear-coverts are 

 paler green , the under wing-coverts yellowish buff. 



Iris brown, bill grayish horn-color, feet olive-green. 



The specimen from Robertsport was shot from the nest 

 in a bosquet that covered a swamp right behind the beach. 

 The nest-hole , in an old tree about 8' from the ground , 

 contained two pure white , conical eggs of 2 cm. length 

 and 1,5 cm. width. 



Centropus francisci. 



Centropus francisci^ Bonap. Consp. I. p. 107; — Hartl. 

 Orn. W. Afr. p. 186; — Schl. Mus. P.-B. Cuculi, p. 71 ; — 

 Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 621. 



Hab. West Africa , from Liberia to the Cameroons. 



A nearly adult, full-grown female, in transitional stage 

 of plumage , from Bavia (St. Paul's), and a nestKng from 

 Buluma (Grand Cape Mount). 



Both these specimens show in all important points the 

 same distribution of color as the adult bird. They are, 

 however , distinguished from the latter by narrow black 

 bands across the tips and inner webs — in the nestling 

 also on the outer ones — of the primaries and the whole 

 surface of the secondaries, axillaries and wing-coverts (in 

 the fully adult specimens , contained in the Leyden Mu- 

 seum the black bars are entirely wanting). The nearly adult 

 female has the feathers on head , throat and neck greenish 

 black, those of the latter fulvous at base, all of them 

 speckled with white along the shafts and intermixed with 

 many black-shafted steel-blue ones (the color of the adult). 

 A patch on each side of the head behind the ear is ful- 

 vous , another smaller one on the throat dirty white. 

 These peculiarities might lead to the conclusion , that the 

 head and neck of the young birds must be fulvous , with 

 white shafts to all the feathers, and that this color would 

 change successively, beginning at the tips, into greenish 

 black, which later would give way to the blue gloss and 



Pfotes trom the Leyden IMuseum, Vol. "VII. 



