LAMPROTORNIS PURPUREICEP3 81 



Museum. Doiuery met witli the species at the Sulymali River, 

 and it is apparently s'enei'ally distributed over Liberia and the 

 Gold Coast, and this is the limit of its known range. Ussher 

 records it as : " Common in most districts of the Gold 

 Coast, but especially on the plains of Accra. It associates in 

 flocks with L. purpiireus, and much resembles, in its flight 

 and habits, our English Starling." According to Mr. Boyd 

 Alexander : " This species is not found outside the forest 



Lamprotornis purpureiceps (Plate 46, fig. 2). 



Lamprocolius purpureiceps, Verr. Eev. et Mag. Zool. 1851, p. 418 Gaboon ; 

 Sharpe, Cat. B. M. .xiii. p. 184 (1890) ; Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 60;) 

 (1896) ; Eeichen. Vog. Afr. ii. p. 685 (1903). 



Adult. The extremely short feathers of the crown violet like the sides 

 of the neck, chin, throat and crop, shading into Ijlack on the forehead and 

 sides of the head ; back of neck, back, scapulars, centre upper tail-coverts 

 and the chest glossy green, remainder of the upper tail-coverts violet sliaded 

 bronze ; tail bluish black with a wash of bronze on the centre feathers and 

 outer webs of the others ; wing bluish black with the wing-coverts bright 

 greenish shaded steel blue passing into dark blue on the greater portion of 

 the outer webs of the remainder of the quills ; under wing-coverts glossed 

 with steel blue ; the green breast is sharply defined from the violet throat 

 and crop ; under tail-coverts black broadly edged with glossy bluish violet. 

 Iris yellow ; bill and feet black. Total length 7'7 inches, culmen 0-7, 

 wing 4-4, tail 2-5, tarsus 0*8. 19. 1. 71, Camaroons (Crossley). 



Young. Similar in plumage to adult. Bill and feet brown ; wing 3-4. 



The Purple-headed Glossy Starling ranges from Camaroons 

 to the Loango Coast, and eastward to the Upper White Nile. 



The species seems to be evenly distributed over the 

 woodlands of Camaroons and Gaboon, as specimens have 

 been obtained at many places, but it may be rare as Mr. 

 Sjostedt has remarked, who only met with two specimens 

 in the forests near Ndian and Stoke. In Gaboon the type 



[Januarj', 1900. 



