191 8.] the Birds uf the Anglo-Ec/yptian Sudan. 71 1 



We have examined the large series of Paradise Flycatchers 

 in the British Museum, and although we failed to come 

 to any satisfactory couelusious in regard to definite races, 

 there are some points which may be worth recording. 



In South Africa there appear to be two species occurring 

 together, one, T. perspicillata, with a metallic glossy head, 

 and the other, T. plumbeiceps, without. The latter appears 

 to range westwards to northern Angola, where it merges into, 

 or is replaced by T.melainjnjra (Hartlaub, Orn. W.Afr. 1857, 

 p. 89: (jahoou = rufoci)ierea auctorum). The other form, 

 with a glossy head, occurs throughout Africa to southern 

 Arabia, and the oldest name for it is T. viridis St. Milll. 

 In South Africa this bird is always red, and the adult males 

 have long red tails, but as it goes northward white and par- 

 tially white forms appear. In German East Africa and 

 Uganda the white forms seem to occur, though in the latter 

 country the red form, or often a red form with white 

 shoulders and outer webs to the secondaries, is predominant. 

 In Abyssinia, on the other hand, the adult males apparently 

 always have white backs and long white tails. It seems 

 probable that the same applies to those from northern West 

 Africa {i. e., Gold Coast and Senegambia). In Gaboon and 

 Cameroon, alongside T. melampyra, a form with a white- 

 backed and Avhite-tailed adult male also occurs, but in this 

 form the white is sometimes partially replaced by black. 

 There seems to be no definite geographical range to any 

 coloured form, but the tendency to white is undoubtedly 

 northern, and the tendency to red southern. 



With regard to the plumage changes, we are of the 

 opinion that it takes at least three years for a male to 

 acquire adult plumage, except in the case of the Abyssinian 

 race, T. v.ferreti, where it probably only takes two. Of the 

 forty-seven males from the Sudan before us, fourteen have 

 short red tails and a varying amount of white on the outer 

 webs of the wing-feathers. These we take to be first-year 

 birds. Seven have long red or mixed red and white tails. 

 These we take to be second-year birds. The remaining 

 twenty-six have long white, or black and white, tails. These 



