Birds of Southern Cameroon. G35 



tlie same colour ; in otliers^ again, the markings are browner 

 and less bright. One specimen has large blotches of dull 

 pnrplish-grey underlying the small mottlings, and in t'.vo 

 very blunt eggs there is a distinct zone or cap of deep 

 chestnut-maroon surrounding the apex at the larger end, — 

 W. R. O.-G.] 



TuRDiNus BATESi. [Akalat.] (Plate XIT. fig. 5, e^%.) 



Sharpe, Ibis, 190.2, p. 94 ; 1908, p. 117. 



This is a Turdlnus, not an Alethe as Reichenow has it. 

 This is evident, not only from its appearance and habits, 

 Avhich are like those of the other species of Turdhms, but 

 from the structural characters given in the ' Vogel Afrikas/ 

 for the 5th, Gth, and 7th primary-quills are the longest and 

 the 4th is considerably shorter. 



A young bird (No. 3069) -with the plumage not grown 

 has no spots on the plumage like the young of Alethe ; some 

 of the wing-coverts are of a scarcely discernible lighter 

 shade at the tips ; the chest is dark brown, and the feathers 

 of the breast and abdomen have dark brown edges, forming 

 slight cross-bars. 



Two sitting females (Nos. 4001 and 4128) were brought 

 with their nests and eggs. The nests were merely loose 

 piles of dead leaves with a few stems and rootlets, said to 

 have been found on the ground in the forest ; each contained 

 two eggs. Those of one clutch (Nos. 406, 407) were 

 extremely long (20 x 16 and 24-5 x 15-5 ram.), and when the 

 small embryo had been removed from each there came out 

 of the smaller end of the egg another opaque mass which 

 may have been a second abortive embryo. The other eggs 

 (Nos. 455, 456) both measure 235 x 17 mm. 



[These eggs are of a long oval shape, very slightly glossed, 

 and have the ground-colour white or pale pinkish-white, 

 with small spots and irregular blotches and markings of 

 dull maroon and dark purplish-grey scattered all over the 

 shell. In two specimens they are more numerous towards 

 the larger end and form an irregular cap or zone. — "\V. R. 

 O.-G] 



