W. E. OGILVIE-GEANT— AYES. 401 



coloured brown back, &c. The sexes are similar in plumage in fully adult birds. 

 The type-specimen of S. camerunensis is a female. Dr. Sharpe made the mistake of 

 referring male examples of S. rufolateralis G. R. Gray from S. Camefoon to this species 

 (cf. 'Ibis,' 1905, p. 469); but on my pointing out this mistake to him it was 

 subsequently corrected (cf. 'Ibis,' 1908, p. 451). Mr. Bates had now procured a 

 number of males of S. camerunensis as well as females, and these do not differ in any 

 way from the type, except that the latter has the crown somewhat streaked, not 

 uniform as in the adult male and in the most adult females. The female specimen 

 from Mpanga is likewise perfectly similar to the type, both the wings and tail being 

 precisely the same length — wing 2"S inches; tail T9. The specimen is evidently 

 a very mature bird, with the crown black like that of the male, the margins of the 

 median wing-coverts whitish instead of rufous-buff, and the under tail-coverts with 

 very narrow dark shaft-streaks. Among Mr. Bates's birds there is a similarly marked 

 specimen (No. 1142) in very worn plumage, but the streaks on the under tail-coverts 

 are wider as in other Cameroon specimens. The sex of this bird was not ascertained. 

 It may be that the Mpanga bird represents a slightly different form, but more material 

 is required to settle the point. 



[A few examples of the Cameroon Broad-billed Flycatcher were seen, or rather 

 heard, in the Mpanga Forest, but they were by no means common. The note of this 

 little bird is, I think, the most remarkable I have ever heard, and it is impossible 

 to describe it satisfactorily. It is a kind of jarring noise, something like the sound 

 made by the Greater Spotted Woodpecker hammering upon a dead tree-trunk, 

 but very much louder and more resonant. I had often heard this sound in the 

 forest, but for a long time could not discover the cause of it. The natives said it 

 was made by a Colobus Monkey, but at last I had twice the good fortune to watch the 

 bird actually making the noise, at a distance of 15 yards from me. Had I not seen 

 and heard it so close to me, nothing would have persuaded me to believe that it 

 was not produced by a large animal. It was just the sound one would expect a 

 large Hornbill, such as JBi/eanistes subcylindricus, to make. The bird was perched 

 on the end of a short broken bough, but it did not utter the sound from there. 

 At short intervals it flew 7 suddenly up and hovered like a great hawk-moth by the 

 trunk of the tree with its beak almost touching the bark, and in this position gave 

 forth the extraordinary jarring note. I watched it do this twice in a minute in 

 exactly the same spot, and then, fearing it might escape, I shot it. The native who 

 had told me it was a Colobus was with me and seemed as much surprised as I was. 

 1 have since wondered whether the sound is for the purpose of frightening insects 

 out of the bark or moss. Both S. camerunensis and S. rufolateralis make this curious 

 sound.— R. II. IF.] 



vol. xix.— part iv. No. 5-3. — March, 1910. 3 u 



