Cotile congica

COTILE CONGICA, Reichenow.
CONGO SAND-MARTIN.
Cotile congica, Reichenow, J. f. O. 1887, p. 300.
C. fascicula, plumosa ad finem tarsi absente : torque pectorali pallide brunnea : margine carpali nigro, albo fasciato.
Hab. in flumine Congico, Africae occidentalis.
Female (not quite adult). General colour above mouse-brown, with whitish edges to the feathers of the back (remains of immature plumage), the inner secondaries being also edged with white at the ends ; wing-coverts and quills blackish brown ; upper tail-coverts lighter and more ruddy brown than the back ; tail nearly square, dark brown, with lighter brown edges ; crown of head decidedly darker and more dusky brown than the back ; the ear-coverts and lores also very dark brown ; cheeks, throat, and under surface of body white, with a distinct band of pale brown across the lower throat ; sides of the body light brown, as also the under wing-coverts and axillaries ; the coverts round the bend of the wing blackish, with white tips, as if barred with white : “iris blackish brown ” (F. Bohndorff). Total length 4 inches, culmen 0.3, wing 3.75, tail 1.6, tarsus 0.4.
Hab. River Congo, West Africa.
THIS is a very curious little Sand-Martin, and holds an intermediate position between the two sections of the genus Cotile. Thus it has a brown band on the lower throat like C. riparia, but in its small size it resembles C. minor and its allies; and like the latter group of Sand-Martins, C. congica lias no tuft of feathers at the back of the tarsus, while it differs from all the other members of the genus Cotile in having the lower margin of the bend of the wing barred with black and white.
The original specimens were obtained by Mr. P. Bohndorlf at Manyanga. on the Lower Congo, between Vivi and Stanley Pool. One of them having kindly been sent in exchange by the Berlin Museum to the British Museum, we have been able to give a description of the bird.
For the geographical distribution of this species, vide infra, Plate 31 [Map].