



colour and with narrow paler ends ; underparts buff, palest on the upper half of the throat, and shaded 

 with olive on the lower throat and flanks, and with rather indistinct olive-brown centres to the feathers 

 of the crop and front of the chest ; under surface of the wings dark brown with the inner margins of 

 the quills and the coverts white, the latter shaded with yellow and with dark-brown centres; bill and 

 legs black; irides dark brown. Total length 4 inches, culrnen 07, wing 2'25, tail l - 4, tarsus 0"55. 



Male in moult. Upper parts olive-brown ; least and median series of wing-coverts and the margins of the 

 quills and tail-feathers olive-brown ; remainder of the wings and tail bronzy brown ; the greater series 

 of wing-coverts edged with buffish brown, and the tail-feathers with narrow pale ends ; crown and lores 

 mottled with metallic-green feathers, and the sides and back of the head and the collar with black 

 feathers ; chin and upper portion of the throat black ; remainder of the underparts buff, with a few 



chestnut-brown feathers on the breast. 



« 



Hab. West Africa. 



Tins well-marked species may be easily recognized by the upper half of the throat being black, 

 the lower half buff, and the breast rich chestnut ; the metallic portions of the plumage are 

 confined to the crown and lores. 



It is a native of the northern half of the West- African region, where it ranges from Senegal 

 to the Niger. 



The type was collected at Tinan, in Senegambia, and was named by M. Gervais after 

 M. Adelbert, its discoverer. 



On the Gold Coast it has been collected by Mr. Blissett at Elmina ; and Governor Ussher 

 writes : — " This pretty Sun-bird is not very common in Fantee, except at certain seasons of the 

 year, when it frequents the large flowering trees of the forest in company with many other 

 species." 



It appears to be essentially a woodland species ; for Mr. Buckley and myself never met with 

 it either in the immediate vicinity of Cape-Coast Castle, where large trees are rare, nor at Accra, 

 although we found it to be perhaps the most abundant species of Suu-bird around the large 

 flowering trees at Abrobonko (inland from Cape-Coast Castle), and at Abouri, in the Aguapim 

 district, where, in February, we collected a large series, in almost every stage of plumage, from 

 the bird in full moult to the breeding-dress. 



The small size and active habits of this species often render it very difficult to follow with 

 the eye as it flits round the thickly clustered flowers in the upper branches of the high trees, 

 often hiding itself entirely in the chalice of the large tulip-shaped scarlet flowers of the 

 Bomlax. 



Reichenow also records it from Abouri, and Hartlaub from Ashantee, upon the authority 

 of a specimen in the Bremen Museum. In the Niger district it has been collected at Eboe 

 and at Aboh by Mr. Thomson, who considered it a very scarce bird. As we find no further 

 information with regard to this species, we presume that its head quarters are the Cold Coast, 

 where, however, it is to some extent migratory, arriving there probably from the interior of 

 Ashantee. 



One of our specimens, collected at Abouri on the 22nd of February, and almost in full 



