

The present species is most nearly allied to C. cyanoceplialus, from which it may at once be 

 distinguished by the darker and bluer shade of the metallic head and throat, by the paler colour 

 of the breast, by the yellow abdomen and under tail-coverts, and by the deep-yellow pectoral 

 tufts. 



The bill being shorter in this species than in the other members of the " Olive " group, to 

 which it belongs, it is easy to determine the females and immature males of this species. 



In three adult males I find the following variations in the measurements — culmen - 6 to 

 0-7 inch, wing 2-3 to 2-55, tail 2T5 to 2-3, tarsus 0-68 to 0-7. 



On the Volta it has been collected by Governor Ussher, who writes (Ibis, 1874, p. 58): — 

 " I never observed this curious little Sun-bird elsewhere than on the river Volta, where I shot 

 two specimens. They frequented low shrubs near the river-bank, and, I should fancy, were 

 tolerably plentiful. The habits of most of these Sun-birds appear to be identical ; and their 

 flight and method of feeding offered nothing noteworthy to the collector." 



Mr. Cassin records several specimens from the Gamma river in Mr. DuChaillu's collection : 

 he observes that they were rather larger than the specimen described by Dr. Hartlaub. " The 

 young male," he states, " is like the female, but with the throat, abdomen, and under tail-coverts 

 yellow, the former with a few lustrous metallic green feathers." 



I feel confident that the specimens above described by me as an adult female and a young 

 male are correctly identified. That the latter specimen is young there can be no doubt, owing 

 to the texture of the feathers of the abdomen and under tail-coverts ; but it evidently differs a 

 little from the young bird described by Mr. Cassin. The following solution will perhaps be 

 found to be the correct one, viz. that the bird described by Mr. Cassin as a " young male " is in 

 a more advanced stage, or is an adult male in postnuptial plumage ; for although it would 

 appear at first sight to be highly improbable that the young male as it advances in age would 

 become paler and of a yellow colour on the throat, when in the adult it is of a deep metallic 

 colour, such, however, appears to be the case ; for in a male in almost full plumage from the 

 Volta some of the throat- and chin-feathers are bright yellow, although the base of the metallic 

 feathers are black. We find a very similar case in C. cyanoceplialus. Thus the young male I 

 have described may be considered in the first stage of plumage, and that described by Mr. Cassin 

 as the second stage, or the adult male in postnuptial dress. 



C. reiclienbachii is a very rare species; and we really know next to nothing regarding its 

 habits. 



My description of the adult male is taken from a Gaboon specimen in the British Museum, 

 formerly belonging to Mr. Sharpe, to whom it was presented by M. Jules Verreaux, and the 

 adult female and young male from specimens collected by M. Petit at Landana, in the Congo 

 district. 



