THE BIRDS OF LIBERIA 701 
genus, C’. phoenicea, is said to occur about Freetown, on the coast of Sierra Leone 
(Thompson, 1925). 
Coracina azurea (Cassin) 
Graucalus azwreus Cassin, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1851, p. 348: Western Africa. 
Length 8.5 inches; blue, clearer on the head than on the back, darker on throat and sides of 
head; chin, fore cheeks, and a forehead-band black; wings and tail black, the feathers narrowly 
edged with blue; iris red, bill and feet black. In the female the blue is paler, and only the lores and 
nasal bristles black. West Africa, from Liberia to Congo. 
This bird was described by Cassin from a specimen sent him by Robert 
MacDowell, a former surgeon of Sierra Leone, but although he makes no men- 
tion of its exact place of capture, this is assumed by Biittikofer to have been 
Liberia, since MacDowell collected numerous birds on the St. Paul’s River 
about 1840. There are no other records for the country so that it may be con- 
sidered a rare or only occasional visitor. 
MUSCICAPIDAE Old World Flycatchers 
Alseonax lugens (Hartlaub and Monteiro). Gray River Flycatcher 
Butalis lugens Hartlaub and Monteiro, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1860, p. 110: Bembe, Angola. 
Small, length 5.5 inches; upper side of head, the body and breast-band blue-gray, wings and 
tail blackish, the former slightly edged with white, the tail-feathers minutely tipped with same; 
throat, abdomen and under tail-coverts white. Liberia to Angola. 
Like the River Swallow, this bird is strictly limited in its distribution to the 
shaded banks of streams and is not seen unless one makes a canoe- or boat-trip 
along their courses, for at high water we found it impossible to see much of the 
river life since the banks are thickly overgrown with vegetation in most places. 
During August in the course of several journeys up and down the Du, this bluish- 
gray flycatcher was commonly seen, and invariably in pairs, the two birds keep- 
ing near each other, and as the boat progressed up the narrow stream, they 
would flit on ahead flying low along the surface from the deep shadow of one 
bank to the overhanging thickets of the other, or keeping farther on along the 
same side. In a morning’s canoe trip above our camp on the Du, we saw many 
of these little birds, and invariably a single pair together, each with its own 
definite area, for after flitting on ahead of the canoe for a few hundred feet they 
would turn and go back. There seemed to be a pair to every few hundred yards, 
but never more than a single pair in the same area. They perch usually close to 
the water on roots or branches under the shadowy overhanging vegetation along 
the stream bank, now and then darting out for a passing insect and either return- 
ing to the same perch or flying on to another. Alighting, they will at intervals 
jerk the tail upward slightly, but not sidewise as our Phoebe does; and they sit 
in a somewhat crouched or hunched attitude. They were apparently not breed- 
ing at the time of our visit, but Bittikofer (1888, p. 84) mentions that on Febru- 
ary 5, he shot a pair and a young bird together with a single shot, on the Du. 
The young bird had the upper surface spotted with fulvous. He mentions only 
three other specimens secured, and notes its close association with the river 
banks. 
