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SIGMODUS CANICEPS 465 
buff on the abdomen, thighs and under tail-coverts; axillaries and sides of 
the chest black. Iris yellow; bill, tarsi, feet and claws orange red. Total 
length 8-2 inches, culmen 1:0, wing 4:7, tail 3:3, tarsus 0°8. Cape Coast 
Castle, 9, 4. 3. 72 (Shelley). Baumann gives eyelids and bill purplish-red ; 
legs scarlet-red. 
Immature. Differ in having the bill black or partly so; the crown 
mottled with black on the hinder half; a black band through the eye to the 
nostril; chin and throat whitish shading into rufous buff on the cheeks, 
ear-coverts and sides of neck ; one or two of the outer pairs of tail-feathers 
with sandy buff terminal angular marks. Fumsu (Alexander), 
S.c. harterti. ‘‘ Resembling the typical form, but smaller, and with the 
blue-grey of the head completely encircling the eye. Wing 4°1 to 4:3, culmen 
0:80 to 0:85.” Neumann. 
The Western Red-billed Shrike ranges from Sierra Leone 
into southern Nigeria. 
The type of this species is stated by Hartlaub to have 
been obtained on the Boutry or Butri River on the Gold Coast 
by Pel. There are several examples in the British Museum 
from Sierra Leone. 
Demery met with this species at the Sulemah River, and 
it has been recorded from many places in Liberia, where 
Oberholser informs us that it is called by the British residents 
the “ Baboon-bird,” and by the natives the “ Way-ye.” From 
the Gold Coast there are in the British Museum eleven adults 
and nine immature birds, and when I was out there with 
T. E. Buckley, in February and March, we saw a few solitary 
examples, and one on Connor’s Hill only a few hundred 
yards from Cape Coast Castle. They appeared to be sluggish 
in their movements. Alexander met with the species at 
Fumsu, and along the Volta River, and writes: “This bird 
frequents the forest in small parties. It is not found in the 
Hinterland.” In Togoland it has been recorded from Agome 
Tongwe and Amedjovhe (Baumann). 
Neumann distinguishes birds from southern Nigeria by 
their smaller size, and by the greater extension of the grey 
cap. He states that he has examined some eighteen examples 
