538 Mr, G. L. Bates on the 



the males leading; this evolution has gone a step further in 

 both sexes in C. batesi than in tlie other species. 



A young sjjecimen has all the wing-coverts tipped with 

 yellow, traces of yellow bars on the back, and of dark bars 

 on the breast. 



In the adult males the iritles are dark blue ; in younger 

 birds and females this colour is more or less mixed with grey ; 

 the feet of all are bluish-grey. 



The birds of this species that have been sliot^ in one case by 

 myself, were met with in bijak along with other birds, in the 

 second-growth woods of old cleared ground {blkolok). 



Laniakius luehderi. [Nko'o-bikotok.] (Plate IX. 

 figs. 1-i, eggs.) 



Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 330. 



No. 3068 is a young bird vsith the plumage not fully grown. 

 It represents a still younger plumage than that of which the 

 description is given in Reichenow's ' Vogel Afiikas.^ All 

 the upper side is finely barred M'ith light brown and blackish ; 

 the under side is olive-yellow with fine dark bars, which are 

 wanting on the crissum and buff under tail-coverts. 



I have already spoken {' Ibis/ /. c.) of the commonness of 

 this bird in the impenetrable thickets of old cleared ground 

 {bikotok) and of its calls in which mates answer each other, 

 nearly always while out of sight. The call of the female is 

 probably the low "churring'" one, while the one 1 think to 

 1)6 that of the male might almost be described as a " cooing " 

 note. Once a bird of this species that was making these 

 '' cooing" calls was seen to bend its head and neck forward 

 at each utterance. 



Several nests of Tsko'o-bikotok have now been found. 

 They are shallow cujis set in the forks of low trees or bushes 

 or in the big half-shrubby weed Triumfetta. These nests are 

 composed of dried weed-stems with fine rootlets inside, the 

 rootlets seeming to be an invariable feature. They are 

 shallower and ruder in construction than the somewhat similar 

 nests of the Pvcnonotidre. 



