22 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
Cisticola lateralis (Fraser). Sooty-backed Grass Warbler 
Drymoica lateralis Fraser, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1843, p. 16: Cape Palmas. 
A large warbler, 5.5 inches long; dark olive brown above; chin, and center of throat, breast, 
and belly whitish, sides of breast and the flanks olive gray; tibiae and outer edge of wings r usty; 
tail-feathers with a subterminal blackish spot. Immature with a wash of yellowish on chin and 
breast, and lower mandible pale. Portuguese Guinea to Angola. 
A characteristic bird of open areas, and clearings with enough large dead 
bushes and trees remaining to serve as perches; this warbler is another species 
that is undoubtedly favored by cultivation and agriculture. It is quick to follow 
in after the virgin forest is cut away, and its hurried cherry warble resounds at 
any hour of the day from the top of some tall stump remaining or from the top- 
most twigs of a dead bush or tree at the edge of a cultivated field or in the midst 
of it. A few also frequent the edges of the seashore and sing from similar perches. 
In addition to its song, it frequently gives a plaintive plover-like whistle of three 
notes. Specimens were secured on the Du River, at Gbanga and Paiata. 
Cisticola brachyptera brachyptera (Sharpe). Short-winged Grass Warbler 
Drymoeca brachyptera Sharpe, Ibis, ser. 2, vol. 6, p. 476, pl. 14, 1870: Fanti, Volta River. 
A small, short-tailed species, 4.5 inches; first primary less than half as long as the second; 
above dull uniform brown; a white mark before the eye; tail-feathers each with a blackish sub- 
terminal spot; chin, throat, and midventral area silky white; flanks and tibiae washed with buffy. 
Gambia to Angola. 
This is the C. rufa of Chubb and Bannerman. It is much less common than 
Prinia which it at first sight somewhat resembles. In addition to the records 
of Buttikofer from Paynesville and Robertport, and that of Bannerman from 
Nana Kru, Whitman and I secured it at Gbanga, in the thick weedy growth at 
the edges of a rice-field. 
Melocichla mentalis mentalis (Fraser) 
Drymoica mentalis Fraser, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1848, p. 16: Gold Coast, Accra. 
Length 8 inches, tail graduated; above brown, becoming rusty on rump; a whitish eyebrow 
stripe; cheeks and throat whitish to buffy; a narrow black line on each side of throat; below rusty; 
tail dark brown, outer feathers tipped with paler brown. Liberia to Angola. 
At Gbanga, in eastern Liberia I shot a bird of this species on September 16, 
that flew from a large clearing grown up in part to rank weeds and in part to rice. 
It alighted among the thick trees and vines along a bordering stream. This is 
apparently the first record for Liberia, but it is a commoner bird at no very 
great distance away in the more open country of southeastern Sierra Leone 
(Kemp, 1905) or in the grassy areas about Freetown in the same country (Thomp- 
son, 1925). We did not see it elsewhere. 
Camaroptera griseoviridis tincta (Cassin). Gray-throated Warbler 
Syncopta tincta Cassin, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1855, p. 325: Moonda River, West 
Africa. 
Size of a warbler, 4.5 inches; head, throat, sides, and back light slate gray; scapulars and wing- 
coverts olive yellow, wing and tail-feathers dark brown, edged with olive yellow; belly white, tibiae 
ocher yellow. West Africa with other races in East Africa. 
