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A REVISION OF THE GENUS CALAMOCICRLA Sharpe. 

 By OSCAU NEUMANN. 



THE species placed in the genns Calamocichla are most nearlj' related to some 

 of the geiiTis Aci-ocephalus, sucli as A. bai'ticatus, streperus, palustris, 

 and stentoreus. They resemble them iu strnctnre, in habits, and mostly also in 

 coloration, the well-developed first primary being the only generic character to 

 distinguish the two genera. If there was not a trne Acrocephalus, viz. .1. bai'ticatus, 

 l)reeding in Sonth and East Africa, one would be justified to consider the species 

 of Calamocichla the representatives of Acrocephalus in Africa. One of the species 

 of the group, Calamocichla gracilirostris Hartl., has hitherto been kept separate 

 from the other members on account of its somewhat narrower and shorter first 

 primary, and was dealt with as Lusciniola gracilirostris in vol. v. of the Catalogue 

 of Birds, while leptorhyncha, newtoni, and brevipennis are to be found in different 

 places in vol. vii. In a work even of such standing as Reichenow's Vogel A/rihas, 

 gracilirostris and the other species are still dealt with under different genera. 

 Sharpe, iu Hand-list of Birds, vol. iv. p. 206, is the first to give gracilirostris its 

 right place. 



Another very interesting fact is the striking external resemblance of some of 

 the species of Calamocichla to one species of the Pgcnonotidae, viz. Phgllostrephas 

 strepitans of Reichenow. This resemblance was the cause of a rather amusing 

 confusion. Firstly, one species of Calamocichla, viz. parva, was originally described 

 by Fischer and Reichenow as a Phyllostrephus. Ten years later Reichenow 

 corrected this error in his Vogel von Deutsch Ost Afrika, and again, ten years later 

 (1904), the same author redescribed his Phyllostrephus strcjiitaiis, vi\i\c\x\s mdeeA 

 a true Phyllostrephus, as Calamocichla schillingsi. Shelley had already redescribed 

 the Phyllostrephus strepitans as Phyllostrephus sharpei in 1880, and eight years 

 laisT {P.Z.S. 1888, p. 24) he employed that name for four specimens of a large 

 form of a true Calamocichla. Sharpe, Hand-list, vol. iv. p. 200, corrected this 

 mistake to a certain extent, but erroneously identified this large Calamocichla with 

 griseldis Hartl., which is another mistake, as griseldis is a true Acrocephalus. 

 That such mistakes as these could be made by the three foremost living authorities 

 on African Ornithology shows that the genus is a rather difficult one to deal with. 



In working out the species a still greater diiliculty is encountered than the 

 external similarity to Acrocephalus and Phyllostrephus, it being an interesting but 

 embarrassing fact that the female of a larger species sometimes resembles the 

 male of the next smaller one. Further, in the West African forms the adult 

 birds are mostly grey above and below, and the young birds are rufous or 

 yellowish brown, while in the East African forms the differences in coloration 

 between j'oung and adult specimens are not so striking. 



The Genus Calamocichla was founded by Sharpe in the Cataloque of Birds, 

 vol. vii. p. 131, where he gives no description, but simply unites under this name 

 two species, newtoni aud brevipennis. The definition of the genus is, however, 

 to be found in the key to the Genera of Bradypteri, pp. 93 and 94. This key fits 

 very well brecipennis and all other species of Calamocichla from tropical Africa, 



