626 Mr. G. L. Bates on the 



CossYPHA CYANOCAMPTA. [Aiigokou.] (Plate XII. 

 figs. 6 & 7, eggs.) 



Sharpe, Ibis, 1905, p. 474; 1908, p. 125. 



I can speak more certainly now tlian I could in my former 

 note ('Ibis,' 1905, p. 474) about the strange and sweet notes of 

 the A.ng6k6n ; for after looking for it many times when I heard 

 it in the thickets of the bikdtok, I at last saw it. This bird 

 is a very perfect imitator of other birds ; often one seems to 

 Lear a Cuckoo, for instance, but presently the voice changes, 

 and you know that it is an Angokon. Late one evening 

 when it was growing dark, and all sounds save those of night 

 creatures had long ceased, I heard several short snatches of 

 song by an Angokon, from a thicket near by ; is this bird 

 acquiring the habit of its relative, the bird that " sings 

 darkling " ? It is interesting to note, too, that its eggs 

 look like those of the Nightinglc. 



Four nests of this species, identified by the sitting birds 

 caught in them, have been found by boys in the dark 

 thickets which are the haunt of the bird. They were loosely 

 built of decaying leaves and stems, with a few fibres 

 inside. The number of eggs in each was two, but in every 

 case one was broken ; the eggs varied from 22 to 23 "5 mm. 

 in length, and from 15 to 16*5 mm. in width. 



[They are of a long oval form and distinctly glossy, the 

 ground-colour varies from rather bright greenish-blue to 

 pale bluish-green, and is more or less obscured by dull 

 indistinct mottlings and cloudings of rufous or lilac-grey, 

 which are concentrated towards the larger end. — W. K. 

 O.-G.] 



CoSSYPHA VERTICALIS. [AugokoU.] 



Reich. V. A. iii. p. 7G1. 



Cossypha melanonota Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 124. 



My specimens have certainly, on the whole, darker backs 

 than spe^nmens or C. verticaUs from the Gold Coast : but, 

 as Dr. Sharpe pointed out, both these and the Gold-Coast 

 birds vary in that respect, and are not clearly separable. 



This Angokon is rarer than the other, and I do not know 

 (vhcthcr it siuij-s or not. 



