511- Mr. G. L. Bates on the 



Nos. 3005, S008, 3055, 3558, 3939, 4258. ? adult. 



Nos. 357C, 3G00. ? yomig. 



No. 4257. $ yoini<^-. 



All collected at liitye. 



In my former j)aper I gave evidence for believing that tliis 

 species has a perfectly l)lack female (of course, the words in 

 that paper, at the top of p. ^11, " in both sexes" sbould be 

 struck out). I have now further evidence of this fact. All 

 the six black female birds enumerated above were shot in 

 company ^vitll i)irds that looked like males of this species. 

 No. 4258 was killed by the same shot as No. 4257, a young 

 male Jl/. curonatus, and Nkole, who sliot them, thought the 

 ])erfectiy black bird w&s feeding that with the red crown. 



An interesting fact has been discovered about the 

 immature plumage in this species ; that is, that young 

 females hare red crowns lihc adult males, but not of so bright 

 a colour, I asceitaincd the sex of the birds myself (as I 

 always do) and have no doubt that both No. 357G and 

 No. 3600 were females. The former (the younger of the two) 

 has all the feathers of the crown and forehead dull red ; the 

 latter has only a few red feathers on the cro\\n, and is nearly 

 adult. The young male looks much like the young female, 

 but has black feathers among the red. 



Malimbus cassini. [Nga^a-minkan.] 



Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 352; Bates, Ibis, 1909, p. 39. 



Nos. 3288 S & 3298 ? . Assobam. 



Nos. 427G S adult; 3799 ? & 4538 J immature. Ail 

 Bitye. 



The perfectly black female No. 3298 was shot in the same 

 place and among the same com[)any of birds, — in the trees 

 over my camp at Assobam — as No. 3288, which is M. cassini ; 

 this fact, and tl-.e fact that no male M. coronatus was shot at 

 Assobam, is the oidy reason for considering it the female 

 of the present species ; for it is exactly like females of 

 M. coronatus. It will be remembered that at Efiden I 

 shot a ])ci'f'cctly black female at the same nest with a male 

 M. cassini. 



