724 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
Biittikofer described this short-tailed warbler from a single specimen col- 
lected in the graveyard at Monrovia, November 26, by Stampfli. It is said to 
resemble S. flaviventris but has the belly white and flanks ashy. I saw a single 
bird of what was apparently the same species at Paiata, at close range among 
a low thicket of dense bushes and thorny vines on the edge of a swamp. Its 
movements were those of a warbler and its short tail gave the impression of a 
sunbird. It is evidently uncommon. 
Eremomela badiceps (Fraser) 
Sylvia badiceps Fraser, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, p. 144, 1842: Fernando Po. 
Length four inches; crown chestnut brown, lores black, sides of head and neck, and the entire 
back gray; wing and tail blackish brown, throat buffy; a black throat-band; belly pale gray 
washed with buffy. Liberia to the Congo and Lakes. 
The only ground for including this species is the old record by Hartlaub of a 
specimen in the Bremen Museum from Liberia. 
CERTHIIDAE Tree Creepers 
Amaurocichla kempi Sharpe. Brown Bush-creeper 
Amaurocichla kempi Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 15, p. 38, 1905: Bo, Sierra Leone. 
Size of a small sparrow, with very short tail, long neck, and bill as long as head. Above, uni- 
form dark olive brown; throat and center of belly dull whitish, flanks olive washed with dull rufous; 
iris yellow. 
A colored plate of this bird accompanies the paper by Kemp (1905) in the 
Ibis, on birds of Sierra Leone. The genus had previously been known from a 
single species, A. bocagei, from the island of Sao Thomé from which the Sierra 
Leone bird is not greatly different. The specimen which we secured at Bakra- 
town is the first known locality outside of the original station. It was a female 
found hopping about, warbler-like, among the low bushes and tangled vines of 
a hillside thicket close to our compound, October 1. Its length of neck, in so 
small a bird proportionally long, as well as its long bill and short tail are striking 
characteristics. Its stomach contained remains of insects. 
LANIIDAE Shrikes 
Sigmodus caniceps Bonaparte. Gray-crowned Bush Shrike; ‘‘Baboon-bird”’ 
Sigmodus caniceps Bonaparte, Conspec. Avium, vol. 1, p. 365, 1850: Niger. 
Length 8 inches; crown grayish white, throat and rest of upper surface steely black, the prima- 
ries with a white bar near base of inner vane; abdomen and under tail-coverts pale rusty; bill, 
naked ring around eye, and feet red, iris yellow. Young birds have the crown blackish, the fore- 
head only is grayish, and the throat rusty; bill largely blackish. Sierra Leone to Togo. 
This is a bird of thick cover, which we only twice met with, once on the Du 
and again near Tappi Town where Whitman secured an immature male on Octo- 
ber 2. It frequents dense bushy growth near streams, and in spite of its striking 
coloration is not often seen. Biittikofer notes several from Old Field on the Junk, 
and at Hill Town and Schieffelinsville, while Oberholser records one from Mount 
Coffee. 
