— 294 — 



Gymnobucco bonnpartei Hartlaub, J. f. O., 1854, p. 410. — - 

 Type locality : Gaboon. 



G. sladeni was described by Ogilvie-Grant in the Bulletin of 

 the British Ornithologists' Club, and a fuller description appeared 

 in the Report ot'the Ruwenzori Expédition (Z)-rt;;/5. ^00/. 5oc.,i9io, 

 , vol. XIX, p. 416), vvhere a curious slip appears, the bird being said 

 w to be easély distinguishable from G.cinereiceps by having the head 

 / covered with feathers. In the unique type spécimen the head is 

 almost bare whereas of course the head of G. ciiierciceps is closely 

 feathered. This led me to examine closely the spécimens of what 

 I took to be G. sladeni and G. honapartei in the Christy collec- 

 tion and I was astonished to find one bird agreeing exactlv with 

 the type of G. sladeni. It had a bare head and was obtained at 

 Poko on the Uelle River on the 23rd of July 1914 and the sex 

 was determined to be a female. 



Side by side with this spécimen were spécimens of what appear 

 to be G. honapartei, 2 from Poko on the Uelle River, 2 from 

 Avakubi and i from Medje (Haut-Ituri), and one unlabelled bird. 

 Ail obtained in the N. Belgian Congo and ail labelled maies 

 though it must be remarked that the sexes of birds in the Christy 

 5 /coll., cannot alway.be relied upon. We are then faced with the 

 problem as to whether the form G. sladeni is, a good species. 



For mv part I believe that it is. The birds with the feathered 

 heads seem to be perfectly adult and if this is the case the range of 

 Gymnobucco sladeni and G. honapartei must meet and overlap. 



Chaetura cassàni. 



Chaetura cassini Sa.AT'ER, P. Z. S., 1863, p. 205. — Tv^pe loca- 

 lity : Gaboon. 



A single example of this swift was obtained bv Dr. Christy at 

 Poko on the Uelle River. The type in the British Muséum 

 was described by Dr. Sclater from a spécimen obtained bv 

 Du Chaillu in Gaboon. There are spécimens in the British 

 Muséum from Landana, on the coast between Gaboon and the 



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