595 
Birds of Southern Cameroon. 
from 13 to 15 mm. and in width from 10 to 11 mm., the 
average size being nearer the smaller than the larger 
limit. 
Estrilda atricapilla. 
Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 343 ; Bates, Ibis, 1909, p. 52. 
The mouth-markings of several young birds of this species, 
that were noted, resembled those of the other species of 
Estrilda (cf. text-fig. 17). 
Estrilda melpoda. (Text-fig. 17, C, p. 594.) 
Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 344; Bates, Ibis, 1909, p. 52. 
A young bird, with plumage not yet grown (No. 4452), 
had very distinct mouth-markings. These are shown in the 
figure, which was drawn from my sketch and notes made 
before skinning the bird. 
Serinus punctigula. [Odibetaa.] 
Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 341. 
Serinus icterus Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 342. 
My birds are undoubtedly the same as those collected by 
Zenker, not very far away, which Beichenow described 
as Serinus punctigula. But they do not all shew the 
characters by which he distinguished the species, viz., the 
white chin and the blackish dots on the throat. Three 
out of sixteen specimens have pure yellow chins and throats ; 
these are all adult males. The remainder include birds of 
both sexes, some immature and some apparently adult. 
It may be that the dots are lost and the chin becomes 
yellow with age, and perhaps in males only. All my 
specimens have the backs of a much brighter green colour 
than most specimens of S. icterus from S. Africa; they 
have also less white on the tips of the rectrices. 
This Yellow-fronted Canary has a pretty little song. 
A young bird (No. 4482) has downy tips still adhering to 
some of the feathers. It was one of two in a nest in a 
bunch of plantains, and both flew out when I put up my hand 
to take them. This young bird had the inside of the mouth 
dark, contrasting with the yellow inside of the bill and 
