APPENDIX.
V O L U M E I.
Page 36. Add:—
G E O C IC H L A COMP SONOTA, Cassin.
CASSIN’S GROTJND-THRUSH.
Geocichla compsonota, Cassin, Pr. Philad. Acad. 1859, p. 42; Seebohm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus.
v. p. 165 (1881).
Chamcetylas compsonota, Heine, J . f. O. 1859, p. 425.
Turdus compsonotus, Gray, Hand-1. B. i. p. 260, no. 3799 (1869).
G. similis G. princei, sed gutture cinereo nec albo distinguenda.
T his species was discovered by Du Chaillu in Gaboon, during his celebrated exploration of Tropical
West Africa. I t has never been met with since, and Seebohm states, in the * Catalogue of Birds ’
(v. p. 165), that the type-specimen in the Philadelphia Academy’s Museum appears to have been
mislaid. The skulking habits of some of these Geocichlce render them very difficult to procure in
the tropical forests which they inhabit; and, as a case in point, I may mention Geocichla crossleyi,
a perfectly distinct species discovered in the Cameroons Mountains by the late Mr. A. Crossley in
1871, and never since obtained, though Professor Reichenow and Professor Sjostedt have done
their utmost to procure specimens, and the large collections made by the German travellers have
never yielded a single example.
We may therefore state that G. compsonota is a species of which we should like to see another
specimen, since Cassin’s original description is somewhat meagre, as Seebohm justly remarks. The
latter gentleman thinks that it will be found to be allied to the equally rare G. crossleyi, but he
places it near G. princei in the ‘ Catalogue.’