246 BULLETIN 2 08, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Zenker's Honey-Guide 



Melignomon zenkeri Reichenow "' 

 Figure 1; Plate 21 



The least known of all the African honey-guides, this species occurs 

 in the dense evergreen forest from Yaunde in eastern Cameroons and 

 Ebebiyin, N'kumadjap, in Spanish Guinea eastward across the Congo 

 forest to the Semliki Valley. Peters (1948, p. 65) states that it may 

 possibly range south to northwestern Angola, but I know of no 

 evidence of its presence there.®* As far as I know, no European has 

 ever seen this species in life, all the known examples having been 

 collected by native assistants. The localities from which the species 

 has been recorded are few in number: Cameroons: Bitye and Esamesa 

 on the River Ja, Yaunde; Belgian Congo: Kotili on the Itimbiri 

 River, Ibembo, and Beni, on the western edge of the Semliki Valley; 

 Spanish Guinea: Ebebiyin, N'kumadjap forest, very close to the 

 Cameroons frontier.®' 



A female shot at Esamesa, Cameroons, in January was in breeding 

 condition; another collected nearby at Bitye, AprU 17, was in fairly 

 fresh plumage, probably a postbreeding bird. 



In the gizzard of the first specimen procured by Bates's helpers 

 were particles or fine flakes of beeswax mixed with some tiny black 

 particles, probably bits of insects. Bannerman (1933, p. 418) mentions 

 these black particles as "small black insects like ants and winged 

 termites" but this seems to be only a needless guess. 



The natives in Spanish Guinea know very little of the various 

 honey-guides, and even less of this one. When questioned by Sabater, 

 they called it "m^," a name used for all the honey-guides except the 

 lyre-tailed one. The natives belonged to the Fang-ntumu tribe. 



Description 



Adult (sexes alike): Entire upperparts olive-brown, the crown 

 faintly tinged with olive, the feathers of the back and wing-coverts 

 as well as the secondaries and most of the primaries narrowly edged 



" Melignomon zenkeri Reichenow, Ornith. Monatsb., vol. 6, p. 22, 1898. 

 (Jaunde, Cameroons.) 



•8 The basis on which Peters included northwestern Angola in the range appears 

 to be a specimen collected by Braun. However, the specimen, now in the British 

 Museum, was wrongly identified and is really Prodotiscus insignis. 



"' One specimen, collected in January 1953 by G. Sabater's native assistants, 

 unfortunately was destroyed by insects after it was put away for shipment to the 

 United States. In view of the mistaken identification of Braun's Angola bird, 

 it is possible that this record also may be looked upon as uncertain since the bird 

 was not examined by an expert ornithologist. 



