— 415 — 



feeding on small insects and uttering a note not unlike Zosterops. 

 When the sun shines through the spread tail in the evening it 

 makes the little créature look^quite beautiful. It is a fairly common 

 bird but very difficult to find. — W. P. L.). 



Bâtis bella poensis. 



Bâtis poensis B. Alexander, Bull. B. O. C, XIII, p. 34. — 

 Type locality : Bakaki, Fernando Po. 



A single female example of Alexander's Beautiful Flycatcher 

 was shot at Iju near Lagos by Mr Lowe. It belongs to the group of 

 Flycatchers which are distinguished by the narrow dark chestnut 

 breast-bands of the females from the other well-marked groups 

 B. orietitalis and B. senegalensis with their subspecies. 



Neumann (J. f. O., 1907, pp. 352-355) uses the spécifie name 

 minor Erl for this group, but Sclater and Praed (Ibis, 1918, 

 p. 708) show that bella Elliot is the oldest name and must there- 

 fore be used in future. 



I had expected Mr Lowe's bird to belong to the mainland race 

 Bâtis bella chadensis which ranges from the Shari river and Lake 

 Chad, eàstwards to the Northern Sudan but the Lagos spécimen is 

 smaller than B. b. chadensis and moreover it bas the dark glossy 

 head oi B. h. poensis. Two spécimens which Mr Lowe shot in 19 10 

 at Sekondi, Gold Coast, I hâve also assigned to this form, as well 

 as a bird shot by Mr Bates at the River Ja, Cameroon. 



Messrs Sclater and Praed hâve alreadv dealt with the three 

 races (') of B. bella which occur in the Sudan namely : 



1. — Bâtis bella chadensis : Lake Chad., French Equatorial 



Africa, Sudan. 



2. — Batis bella nvanzae ; Uganda, north to Malakal on the 



upper White Nile. 



(') For further particulars of thèse three races and their range see the paper already cited. 

 (Ibis, 1918.) 



