344 DRYOSCOPUS GAMBENSIS 
Dryoscopus gambensis. 
Lanius gambensis, Licht. Verz. Doubl. p. 48 (1823) Senegambia. 
Dryoscopus gambensis, Gadow, Cat. B. M. viii. p. 146 (1883) ; Shelley, 
B. Afr. i. No. 747 (1896); Reichen. Vég. Afr. ii. p. 595 (1903) ; id. 
Mittl. Zool. Mus. Berlin v. p. 222 (1911) Camaroon. 
Maloconotus mollissimus, Swains. B. W. Afr. i. p. 240, pl. 23 g (1837) 
Senegal. 
Dryoscopus cucullatus, Hartl. Orn. W. Afr. p. 111 (1857) Senegal. 
Subspecies a. Dryoscopus congicus. 
Dryoscopus congicus, Sharpe, Ibis, 1901, p. 39 Condé. 
Adult male. Upper half of the head and neck, tail-coverts and tail 
glossy black ; wings dusky brown with the edges of all the feathers white 
with a brownish wash; scapulars greyish-white mingled with dusky ; puff 
feathers of the rump white at the base, washed with grey about the tips; 
below including the cheeks and under tail-coverts white, usually washed with 
grey ; under wing-coverts and inner lining of the quills white. ‘Iris chrome- 
orange to blood-red, bill greenish-black, feet pale olive-green.’’ (Ansorge.) 
Length 8:25 inches, wing 3:7, tail 3°6, culmen 0°85, tarsus 0:90. Krachi, ¢, 
23. 5. O01 (Alexander). 
Adult female. Head and nape dark ashy-brown, sometimes a slaty-brown, 
obscurely streaked with dusky, back and wings brown without slaty, the 
tail a duskier brown shade; the wing quills and coverts edged with pale 
tawny; the puff feathers of the rump ashy-grey washed with brown at the 
tips ; under parts white, washed with ochraceous tawny paling to pure white 
on the under tail-coverts ; under wing-coverts and inner lining of the quills 
pale tawny ; no well-defined spot or line of white on the lores, though the 
loreal area is generally paler than the surrounding parts. ‘Iris chrome- 
orange, bill greenish-black, slate-blue on the lower mandible, feet pale olive- 
green. Wing 3-4. Gunnal, 9, 23. 7. 09 (Ansorge). 
Immature. A young male closely resembles the female. 
Subspecies D. g. congicus. The male cannot be distinguished from that 
of the typical race; wing 3°6. Landana, g, 20. 5.77 (Lucan). The female 
is darker and more richly coloured than that of the typical form. The edges 
of the coverts and quills are a rich tawny, while the underparts are also the 
same colour, paling, though not to white, on the under tail-coverts. Bill 
pale horny in the dried skin. Wing 3-4, Condé, ? (Lucan). 
The Gambian Puff-back Shrike ranges over West Africa 
from Senegambia south to the Congo and inland throughout 
northern Nigeria. The type is stated by the describer to 
have been obtained from Senegambia, while those of the two 
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