532 Mr. G. L. Bates on the 



No. 3172. Si changing by moult from immature to adult 

 plumage. Assobam, Dec. 1908. 



No. 4137. r? adult. Bitye, March 1910. 



Nos. 4244 and 4260. Both c? immature. Bitye, June 

 and July 1910. 



I have given a full list of the specimens in this collection, 

 and added to them the specimens from my former collections 

 that I find in the British Museum, because Dr. Sharpe has 

 strangely confused this species with T. nigro-initratus. Adult 

 males have a shining blue-black plumage on the head^ back, 

 throat, and chest ; adult females have this colour on the head 

 only ; immature birds have only the head black, and of a 

 duller black than the adult females. 



The iris in all is very dark brown, almost black ; the bill 

 ami feet are blue, but the former has a black tip. 



The immature birds have the rectrices a little longer and 

 much more pointed than those of adults. 



TcHiTREA viRiDis. [Abclcbele.] 



Sharpe, Ibis, 1904, p. G30 ; 1905, p. 470; 1907, p. 454 ; 

 Bates, Ibis, 1905, p. 95 ; 1909, p. 32 ; lleich. V. A. ii. 

 p. 504. 



Terpsiphone duchaillui Grant, Trans. Zool. Soc, xix. 

 p. 404. 



Tchitrea melanura Reich. V. A. ii. p. 503. 



Tchitrea speciosa Reich. V. A. ii. p. 724. 



I have brought home a large series of male birds with long 

 tail-plumes, which, in spite of the astonishing variation in 

 plumage, I believe to belong to the same species. 



Two male specimens in the British Museum, one from the 

 Gambia, and the other from Casamanse, with chestnut tails 

 and under tail-coverts, might be taken to represent one 

 species, while those oE Cameroon and Gaboon form another ; 

 but my No. 3277 is an exact counterpart of the Gambia 

 examples. I have also specimens in which all the parts that 

 "are chestnut in the cases just referred to are white, and it 

 seems to be true that wherever white appears iu the plumage 

 it has been preceded by chestnut. 



