SPEIItOPS LEUCOPII.E V. 203 



Speirops leucophaea. (Pi. 8, fig. 2.) 



Parinia leucophaea, Hartl. ; id. J. f. O 1861, p. 161 Gaboon. 



Zosterops leucophaea, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. ix. p. 200 (1831) Prince's Is. 



Gaboon. 

 Malacirops leucophaea, Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 112 (1896). 



Adult. Mantle and back pale brownish ash ; wings and tail more 

 uniform clear brown ; head, neck and under parts white with a slight ashy 

 shade on the crown, nape, breast and under tail-coverts. Bill uniform 

 dark grey; iris dark brown, tarsi and feet greyish brown. Total length 

 5*2 inches, culmen 0-45, wing 2-6, tail 2, tarsus 0-8. 



The White-headed Speirops is, I believe, confined to 

 Prince's Island, which is situated about 130 miles from the 

 Gaboon coast. 



The species was described and made the type of the genus 

 Parinia, by Dr. Hartlaub, from a specimen in the Bremen 

 Museum labelled " Gaboon (Verreaux)," and a few years later, 

 in 1861, he records possibly the same specimen as having been 

 procured by Du Chaillu in Gaboon. 



I can find no other evidence of the species ever having 

 been seen in a wild state elsewhere than in Prince's Island, 

 which travellers to Gaboon would very likely visit during their 

 journey; I therefore believe the range to be confined to that 

 island, where Dr. Dohrn and Mr. Keulemans met with them 

 in small flocks, found the sexes similar in plumage, and 

 describe one of their nests as " composed of fine grasses and 

 attached to two branches with the silk of moths," compara- 

 tively small: diameter 3 - 6 inches, depth 2 - 4 Eggs 076 by 

 0'64 ; two in number, white, and hatched in June and July. 



Genus III. MALACIROPS. 



The members of this genus, three in number, are similar in form to those 

 of Zosterops, but differ in the style of colouring, they all having the upper 



