GOO Dr. R. B. Sharpe on Birds 



has allowed me, when I had no gun, to pass very near to it, 

 while its crest-plumes waved liked a flag in the wind. The 

 Bulu boys believe that if you see an ' Abayek' perched on 

 a limb, and say to it, 'Abayck, shew me your plumes/ it 

 will bend forward its head for you, so that the long crest- 

 feathers fall over its face. The specimen obtained was shot 

 while circling over a village at midday, in company with 

 another, and its stomach was quite empty. The stomach 

 of a second example killed some time ago contained the 

 remains of a good-sized wild mouse. " 



12. Dryotriorchis batesi, n. sp. 



Dryotriorchis spectabilis (nee Schl.) ; Gurney, P. Z. S. 

 1880, p. 621, pi. lviii. ; Reichenow, J. f. 0. 1896, p. 7 ; 

 Sharpe, antea, p. 102. 



Dryotriorchis spectabilis pt. (nee Schl.) ; Sharpe, Hand-1. i. 

 p. 264 (1899); Reichenow, Vog. Afrikas, i. p. 509 (1901). 



No. 250. <$ ad. Efulen, Nov. 24, 1903. 



No. 444. ? imm. Efulen, April 14, 1904. 



The receipt of these two specimens confirms me in my 

 opinion that the Serpent-Eagle of the Gold Coast is a 

 different species from that of Camaroon, Gaboon, and the 

 Congo. 



The two specimens from the Gold Coast (Denkera) in the 

 Museum are perfectly adult, and have the throat and chest 

 with very large and closely-set black spots, while the chest 

 in the Camaroon bird is uniform creamy or greyish white. 

 One of the Denkera specimens is figured in the ' Ibis ' for 

 1878 (pi. ii.), and the colour of the bird is misrepresented. 

 It should have been much darker brown, and the throat and 

 chest suffused with ferruginous, not with yellow. Professor 

 Reichenow has (/. c.) referred to this figure as that of a 

 young bird, misled, no doubt, by the fact that a spotted 

 chest is the sign of immaturity in the Camaroon bird, 

 whereas it is the character of the adult in the Gold Coast 

 species. I can assure Professor Reichenow that our Denkera 

 specimens are both full-plumaged adult birds. Another 

 figure (Gurney, P. Z. S. 1880, pi. lviii.), taken from a living 

 bird in the Zoological Society's Gardens, from Gaboon, is 



