FISCUS SMITHI 253 
Adult male. Upper parts mostly jet black with a greenish-blue gloss on 
the head and mantle; scapulars pure white; lower back and upper tail- 
coverts grey, generally fading into white on the rump, which is mingled grey 
and white ; five outer pairs of tail-feathers with white ends, increasing in 
size to the outer pair, where the exterior web is nearly, but not entirely, 
white, and the inner web is more black than white, the white tip not exceed- 
ing 0°5 inches in length in typical examples ; wings, with some white terminal 
edges to the quills, almost confined to the secondaries; primaries with a 
broad white basal portion forming a speculum ; under wing-coverts white 
with a dusky patch next to the primaries; axillaries blackish with broad 
white outer edges; cheeks below the gape, and the under parts generally, 
pure white, with a trace of black mottling on the thighs. Iris dark brown; 
bill black ; feet greyish black. Total length 7:7 inches, culmen 0°65, wing 3:3, 
tail 4:3, tarsus 0°9. Cape Coast Castle, ¢, 7. 3. 72 (Shelley). 
Adult female. Differs in having a slight shade of cinnamon on a few of 
the feathers of the flanks. ?, 7. 3. 72. (Shelley). 
Immature. Similar to those of L. collaris. 
Subspecies F. smithi cameruniensis. ‘‘ Upper tail-coverts entirely grey 
like the rump, and the outer tail-feathers with a very broad white outer 
margin” (Reichenow). 
Smith’s Fiscal Shrike ranges over West Africa from the 
Los Islands off French Guinea, and from Sierra Leone south 
to Northern Angola and inland to the Mombattu country in the 
north-east and Lake Kivu in the eastern portions of the Congo 
Free State, where it appears to merge with F’. humeralis, as can 
be seen by an examination of examples from the Lado and 
Ruwenzori regions in the British Museum. 
Reichenow has separated birds from Angola and the Lake 
Districts under the name of Ff. hwmeralis congicus, owing to 
their being more sooty on the back, but a series collected by 
Ansorge at M’Dalla Tando, in northern Angola, are certainly 
quite indistinguishable from typical West African birds in this 
respect. He has also separated as a subspecies the Fiscal of 
the Adamawa country in the interior of Camaroon, but I have 
not had an opportunity of examining examples from there. 
From Sierra Leone Mr. Robin Kemp writes: Common and 
resident throughout the year. Breeds in May and June. The 
