

The West-African representative of the " ashy-breasted section " of the " pale metallic group " 

 differs from its South-African allies, C. afer and C. chalybeus, by its smaller size, the more olive 

 shade on the abdomen, and by the absence of the steel-blue collar and upper tail-coverts. 



It inhabits the whole of the West-African region from Senegal to Angola ; but northward 

 from Fantee it is apparently scarce. As to its occurrence in Senegal we are informed by 

 Dr. Hartlaub (Orn. W.Afr. p. 48) that there is a specimen in the Berlin Museum. It is not 

 Swainson's C. chalybeus from Senegal ; for having examined his type of that bird in the Cambridge 

 Museum, I find that it is the true C. ehalyhens, and must have come from South Africa, as did so 

 many others of his so-called West-African birds. From Casamanse it is recorded upon the 

 authority of M. J. Verreaux ; and in the British Museum there is a specimen from Cape Palmas, 

 collected by Mr. T. R. Thompson. On the Gold Coast it is plentiful, having been sent from 

 Elmina by Herr Weiss and Mr. Blissett ; from Fantee also Mr. Ussher has procured many 

 examples from the neighbourhood of Cape-Coast Castle and the dense forests of Denkera, as 

 well as from the river Volta. It is, as he observes (Ibis, 1874, p. 60), "widely distributed over 

 the west coast of Africa, and very common on the Gold Coast ;" by Mr. Buckley and myself it 

 was met with at Abrobonco and in the bush close to Cape-Coast Castle, as well as at Abouri, in 

 the Aguapim Mountains. 



It is exclusively confined to the wooded districts ; and the specimens we noticed were in the 

 low bushes, it apparently not associating with the numerous other species around the more lofty 

 flowering trees. 



We are informed by the late Sir William Jardine (Ann. Nat. Hist. x. p. 188) that Mr. 

 Fraser found it to be very common in Fernando Po, in flocks of from twenty to fifty individuals, 

 near the houses, where it was seen perching on the long grass and the branches of small shrubs. 

 Its note was short, but sweet. " A female was procured breeding ; the nest, made of grass, was 

 pendent from the branches of a small bush ; she alone was the architect, both carrying and 

 weaving the materials ; the male was not observed to assist in any way." 



M. Marche procured it at Old Calabar ; and it has been collected by Mr. Crossley in the 

 Camaroons, and in Angola by Mr. Hamilton, as recorded by Mr. Sharpe (P. Z. S. 1871, pp. 609, 

 133). In the Gaboon it has been obtained by Mr. Ansell ; and, from the many specimens which 

 I have examined, it is evidently plentiful in that district, and is, according to Mr. Cassin (Pr. 

 Philad. Acad. 1859, p. 35), "apparently one of the most abundant species in Equatorial Africa, 

 and received in all Mr. DuChaillu's collections from the Moonda, Muni, and Camma rivers." 



