'-('■ 



118 PCEOPTERUS LUGUBRIS 



the feathers ; remainder of the wings dusky black, with a large patch of 

 cinnamon on the inner weljs of the nine long primaries. Wing 3-3, tail 4'1, 

 Denkera (Aubinn). 



Immature male. The adult plumage is nearly acquired, but the lower 

 back and the breast, which resemble that of the female, are mottled with 

 steel blue feathers, and the cinnamon has diminished but not disappeared 

 from the two outer long primaries on each side, showing that the colour of 

 these feathers change without being shed, and also that the immature 

 male resembles the female in plumage. J , 1-1. 3. 02, Efulen (G. L. Bates). 



The Western Narrow-tailed Starling ranges from the Gold 

 Coast into Angola. 



The species has not been recorded from further north or 

 west than Fantee. In the British Museum there are five 

 males and two females from that country, one from Fernando 

 Po, and two from Efulen in Camaroons. The specimen 

 from Fernando Po is an adult male and was shot at 

 Banferberi, March 16, 1904, and is the first specimen 

 recorded from that island. In Camaroons the species has 

 been met with at Efulen (Bates), Bipindi (Lenker), Victoria 

 and Buea (Preuss), and near Itoki ; Mr. Sjostedt found a 

 colony of these birds frequenting an isolated clump of 

 stunted trees, at times fluttering round the fruit with 

 noisy chirps, at other times their loud note might be heard 

 as they rose high up in the air. He also met with pairs 

 breeding singly at Bouge and remarks that they are true 

 Starlings in their habits and breed in holes. 



Franquet discovered the species in Gaboon ; Falkenstein 

 procured the t3'pe of Mijiopsar cnjptopijrrliiis at Chinchonxo 

 in Loango, and others have been obtained in Angola at the 

 Kuango Eiver by Mechow. 



