Birds of Southern Cameroon. 623 



blue, the bill black, and the naked or sparsely feathered 

 skin of the throat blue. 



Nos. 3745 & 3746j c? & ? , with large breeding-organs, 

 were brought late in the evening, with a nest, by a man who 

 said he had caught them both after it got dark. He had 

 seen the nest in a small tree in the ekotdk, and put his hand 

 over it. The nest was large enough to accommodate both 

 birds, and shallow ; but it may have been flattened and 

 disarranged by the man's hand. No eggs were brought, 

 but dissection shewed that the female bird had recently 

 laid two. 



Alethe castanea. (Plate XII. fig. 8, egg.) 



Sharpe, Ibis, 11)0.2, p. 94; 1908, p. 127. 



A bird of this species, which proved to be an incubating 

 female, was brought alive with a nest and one egg. The 

 nest was flat or saucer-shaped, without any finished rim, 

 and was made of fine rootlets with a little moss, bits of 

 bark, and earth intermixed ; the top layer was formed of 

 ink-black rootlets, and the dark colour of the egg was in 

 keeping with the colour of the nest and its surroundings, 

 for the nest was said to have been found on the ground 

 under the end of a decaying log in the forest. 



The egg measured about 26 x 17 or 18 mm. It was some- 

 what broken, and could not be accurately measured. 



[It is of a long oval form and almost devoid of gloss. 

 The ground-colour is pale pinkish-white, nearly hidden by 

 spots and blotches of rich maroon, light red, and dull lilac 

 vhich cover the greater part of the shell. — W.K.O.-G.] 



Alethe compsonota. 



Reich. V. A. iii. p. 746. 



Geocich/a cowpsunnta CassiUjPr. Pliilad. Acad. 18r)9, p. 42. 



Alethe ale.mudri Sharpe, Ibis, 1902, p. 94 ; 1908, p. 126. 



It was interesting to establish, from tbe type-specimen in 

 the Museum of the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia, 

 the identity of the long-doubtful Geucichla compsoiola of 

 Cassin. Not only does the specimen itself shew this, but 

 the description of Geocich/a cui/ipsunota exactly fits Alethe 



