i 
PYROMELANA AFRA 81 
Male in breeding plumage. Upper parts bright canary yellow, with 
narrow black terminal edges to the feathers of the nape and hind neck ; 
a band across the upper back next to the neck and the scapulars black, with 
yellow terminal edges to the feathers; wings and tail dark brown, with 
narrow buff edges to the feathers; under wing-coverts and inner edges of 
quills isabelline; sides of head, chin, upper and middle throat and the 
breast black; a broad yellow collar across the lower throat shaded with 
chestnut in the middle; sides of body and the under tail-coverts bright 
yellow ; thighs buff, tinted with yellow. Iris brown; bill black; tarsi and 
feet reddish brown. Total length 4-5 inches, culmen 0:5, wing 2°3, tail 1:3, 
tarsus 0°75. Hgga (Forbes). 
Adult female. Upper parts mottled blackish brown, with pale brown 
edges to the feathers ; lower back and upper tail-coverts more uniform pale 
brown ; under wing-coverts and inner edges to the quills isabelline ; a broad 
eyebrow and the under parts buffy white, with a shade of brown on the lower 
throat, crop, sides of the body and thighs; crop and flanks streaked with 
with dark brown ; bill pale horny brown. Wing 2:0. @, Egga (Forbes). 
Males in winter plumage are similar to the female, and the immature 
birds apparently differ in having no streaks on the crop and flanks. 
The western Yellow - crowned Bishop-bird ranges from 
Senegambia to the Niger, possibly into Benguela. 
In Senegambia the species has been obtained by Marche 
and De Compiégne at Daranka, by Dr. Rendall near Bathurst 
on the Gambia; Verreaux received it from Casamanse, and in 
the Bremen Museum there is one from Bissao. It has not been 
recorded from Liberia, and it is not a common bird on the 
Gold Coast, for when I was there with Buckley in February 
and March, we never met with the species, nor was it pro- 
cured there by Drs. Reichenow and Liihder; so that it may be 
to some extent migratory, for my resident friend, Mr. John 
Smith, procured two specimens at Accra after J left the 
country. These are now in the British Museum along with 
three from Fantee and one from the Volta River collected 
by Ussher, who wrote: ‘“ Seen at times in large flocks; swamps 
preferred by them.” Mr. Boyd Alexander obtained a single 
specimen at Karaga (10° N. lat.) in the hinterland, and in 
Togoland the species has been procured only at Mangu by 
[October, 1904, 6 
