ae le 
2 aug AT 
SF FOE ie RO OS NOE ae. ae 
CATRISCUS APICALIS. 283 
du Bocage as Melocichla mentalis, but I believe that it will be the 
Congo species, M. pyrrhops of Cabanis (J. f. O. 1875, p. 236), 
which runs southward into Benguela. The Congo bird differs from 
the true M. mentalis of the Gold Coast in being greyish-white from 
the chin to the vent, whereas in the latter bird the breast is tawny 
like the flanks. : 
The following description is taken from an adult female bird shot 
by M. Louis Petit at Chinchonxo in the Congo district on the 8th 
of April, 1876. 
General colour above ashy brown, the rump gradually inclinmg 
to rufous brown ; forehead rufous, shading off into ashy brown on 
the hinder crown: lores dull white ; round the eye a ring of whitish 
feathers, and above the eye a very narrow line of white stiffened 
plumes, forming with a streak of buff above the ear-coverts a faintly- 
defined eyebrow; ear-coverts dull rufous with whitish shaft-lines ; 
cheeks white as also the throat; a narrow moustachial line of black ; 
rest of the under surface of body ashy white, with a slight tawny 
tinge on the sides of the neck; the sides of the body light tawny 
buff deepening on the lower flanks, thighs, and under tail-coverts ; 
under wing-coverts ashy white, the lower ones washed with pale 
tawny buff; wings above dark brown, the least wing-coverts washed 
with ashy brown like the back, the greater coverts and quills 
externally edged with rufous; upper tail-coverts deep rufous ; tail © 
dark brown, obscurely waved under certain lights, the feathers 
externally washed with rufous, the outer feathers tipped with ashy 
fulvous ; bill black in skin, the edge of the upper mandible whitish, 
the lower mandible yellowish white, eyes dark brown; “ iris yellow 
with an outer ring of brown” (Petit). Total length, 7°8 inches ; 
culmen, 0°7; wing, 3°05; tail, 3°35; tarsus, 1°15. 
268. CaTRIscUS APICALIS. Fan-tailed Reed- Warbler. 
This species although found in North Hastern Africa, is, as far 
as we yet know, confined to the Colony of Natal in the southern 
part of the Continent. Captain Shelley writes as follows :—“I saw 
several specimens of this bird in the sedge at Durban and Pinetown, 
where, owing to their creeping habits, and the thick vegetation they 
frequent, I was only able to shoot two. It is a very striking little 
bird as it flits out from amongst the thick rushes with a jerky flight, 
its heavy dark tail rather imclinmg downwards.’ He has also 
