^03 



collection are we aware of the female having been obtained without the male occurring from the 

 same locality, the females being by far the rarest of the two. Reichenow, who records it from 

 the Camaroons and the Loango coast, points out their identity founded on the fact of all the 

 grey-throated specimens being females and the metallic-throated ones males ; and in a similar 

 manner I had arrived at this conclusion from the examination of M. Petit's large and carefully 

 sexed series of this species collected by him in the Congo district. 



The late Sir W. Jardine is not very accurate in his description of a male from the Niger in 

 which the process of moulting has commenced ; and Mr. Cassin evidently refers to C. obscurus as 

 the female of this species, and incorrectly describes the young male as similar to that bird, " but 

 with the upper parts more strongly tinted with yellow, and with the top of the head dark brown. 

 In this species the young birds have the under mandible white at base, and frequently for half 

 or two thirds of its length." 



In all the young, as in the birds in moult of the present species which we have examined, 

 the lower mandible is entirely black ; and the specimen described as the young male by Mr. Cassin 

 we should refer to C. obscurus. 



The immature birds of both sexes and the birds in full moult appear to be identical in 

 plumage. The full dress first begins to appear in the shape of metallic feathers on the upper 

 part of the head and neck ; then the breast becomes mottled with clear ashy, and in the males 

 the throat becomes mottled with metallic and in the females with ashy-white feathers. The last 

 portion of the immature plumage to be discarded appears to be the yellow on the collar and 

 down the centre of the breast. 



According to Dr. Hartlaub there is a constant equatorial race from the Gaboon which differs 

 from the more northern specimens in its larger size and in the bluer shade of the metallic throat. 

 These characters we have entirely failed to detect ; but in the Gaboon and Congo specimens, 

 when compared with those from Senegal and the Gold Coast, we find the upper parts slightly 

 more olive and faintly glossed with metallic green, usually most strongly marked on the lesser 

 wing-coverts. 



From the northern portion of West Africa we have examined specimens from Senegal, 

 river Gambia, Casamanse, and Sierra Leone. Lieutenant Bulger has collected it on Bulama, 

 one of the Bissagos Islands, in about 11° N. lat. 



From the Gold Coast we have seen specimens from Elmina, where it has been collected 

 by Messrs. Blissett and Weiss, and from Fantee and the river Volta by Governor Ussher, who 

 writes : — " Nectarinia verticalis. This Sun-bird is not very common. I have shot it in company 

 with N. cyanocejyhala. Occasionally skins have been brought from the interior ; and there is no 

 reason to doubt that its habitat extends over the whole of Fantee. 



" Nectarinia cyanocephala. Extremely common, especially in the vicinity of Cape coast. 

 I have already referred to this bird under the head of N. sjjlendida, which it resembles much in 

 its habits." 



During our stay on the Gold Coast Mr. Buckley and I found the present species to be 

 common at Abrobonko, around the large scarlet flowers of a species of Bombax, in company 

 with many other Sun-birds, and frequently saw it perched upon the fronds of the cocoanut- 

 palms in the vicinity of Gipe-coast Castle. It is a woodland species, which would account for 



2t 2 



