498 
Mr. G. L. Bates on the 
The egg mentioned above is a short and perfectly oval 
in shape and measures 50x43*5 mm. It is pale green 
or greenish-white, and has, like the bits of broken shell 
mentioned above, a very peculiar surface, being glossy and 
smooth, with the exception of scattered minute bosses, or 
pimple-like projections, all over the surface. 
Turacus meriani. [Mba.] 
Sharpe, Ibis, 1904, p. 613; 1907, p. 435. 
No. 4067. S a d. Bitye, R. Ja, Dec. 1909. 
The occurrence of this specimen at Bitve shews, that there 
is not such a sharply defined boundary as I had supposed 
between this coast species and T. persa , the common one 
at Bitye ( cf . 'Ibis/ 1909, p. 13). 
Turacus persa. [Mba.] 
Turacns persa persa Neumann, Nov. Zcol. xv. p. 374 
(1908). 
Turacus zenkeri Sharpe, Ibis, 1907, p. 435 ; 1909, p. 13. 
The distinguishing character of Reichenow's species 
T. zenkeri , viz., the width of the white line under the eye, is 
said by Neumann to be of no value. 
I have watched half-a-dozen "Bemba” of this species, on 
the edge of the forest near Bitye, chasing one another, and 
playing and “ cawing 33 in the tree-tops. Two of them 
alighted on a limb and performed some curious antics. 
Sometimes they would touch bills, as if kissing; sometimes 
one would touch the plumage of the other with its bill. 
Then one of the pair would run away from its mate, along 
the limb, then turn and run back ; and vrhen they met, 
they would again touch bills. While they were going 
through this performance their crests were flattened back, 
not erected as they usually are. 
Additional eggs have been brought, in two cases with the 
sitting birds shot on the nest; in another instance with the 
statement by the bringer that he saw the Mba fly off. All 
these eggs resemble the two described (‘ Ibis/ 1909, p. 13) 
except in shape. The egg that was brought in without the 
bird measures 35*5 X 34 5 mm.; a single fresh egg (another 
would doubtless have been laid) brought with the bird 
