244 NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXII. 1915. 



LIST OF A SMALL COLLECTION OF BIRDS FROM 

 HAUSALAND, NORTHERN NIGERIA. 



By De. ERNST HARTERT. 



OF the many parts of Africa, the ornis of which is still insnfficiently known, 

 Northern Nigeria, and especially the interior of Hansaland, is still one of 

 the least explored. 



W. A. F'orbes, who fell a victim to the climate of the conntry and died at 

 Shonga, ou the Niger, only touched the boundaries of Hausaland, along the Niger 

 and the lower Benne (see Ibis 1883, pp. 494-.5(i2). 



In 188.5 and 188(i I traversed Hausaland from Loko on the Beune to Sokoto 

 and Kano and back ; but this journey was made under many difficulties, with 

 little ammnnitiou — most of which had been lost on the Niger, — without experience, 

 and, last but not least, in bad health, suffering as 1 was severely from malaria, 

 and also with other primary objects to attend to. Therefore my collections of birds 

 were not large. What I was able to observe and to collect is recorded in Jouni. 

 f. Orn. 1886, and in Toi\ Zool. 1901. 



The late Boyd Alexander travelled through Hausaland at the beginning of 

 his great expedition from the Niger to the Nile ; but he traversed only the more 

 eastern parts, as his journey passed from Ibi to Banchi, and thence eastwards to 

 Lake Chad. He collected many species of birds and described some novelties, but 

 no list of them has as yet been published. 



It was, therefore, with pleasure that Mr. Rothschild purchased some birds 

 collected by Mr. Lorenzo Poggiolini, an Italian in the service of Mr. Montagu 

 Porch in Nigeria. Though the collection is a very poor and incomplete one, the 

 collector having had but little leisure and no knowledge of birds, I think it will 

 be worth while to i)ublish a list and a few notes on them. 



Most of the specimens are from Zaria and the province of that name, but 

 a few — unfortunately very few only — were collected on a journey from Sokoto to 

 Timbuktu and thence to the Senegal. 



1. Phalacrocorax africanus (Gm.) 



$ ad., Zaria, 2. x. 1912. 

 " Iris rufous." 



2. Anhinga rufa rufa (Lacqi.) 

 i ad., province of Zaria, without date. 



3. Nyroca nyroca nyroca (Giildenst.) 



2 ? ?, province of Zaria. Undoubtedly a winter visitor.— This appears to be 

 the first record for Western Africa. In 188.") I saw ilucks near Sokoto which I 

 suggested might have been this species {Jourit.f. Orn. l88(i, p. t)12). 



