248 BULLETIN 2 08, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Slender-Billed Honey-Guide 



Prodotiscus insignis (Cassin) ^^ 

 Figure 1; Plate 21 



Distribution 



The slender-billed honey-guide occurs in primeval and also in 

 secondary forests and in gallery forests from Sierra Leone, Liberia, 

 Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, Togoland, Nigeria (once found in open 

 tree savamias), the Belgian Congo, Uganda, and Angola, eastwards 

 to Kenya Colony, southern Ethiopia, Tanganyika Territory, Nyasa- 

 land. Northern and Southern Rhodesia. Its altitudinal range is 

 from close to sea level up to as high as 7,000 feet (Limuru, Kenya 

 Colony). In the vast region it occupies it has become differentiated 

 into four currently recognized races, as follows. 



Prodotiscus insignis flavor dor salis Bannerman: ^^ Sierra Leone 

 (Kwendu), Liberia (Ganta), Ivory Coast (Beoumi), Gold Coast 

 (Ejura and Goaso, Ashanti), Togoland, and southwestern Nigeria 

 (Abeokuta). 



Prodotiscus insignis insignis (Cassin) : South-central Nigeria (Benin 

 (identification to subspecies based on a drawing and measurements, 

 the specimen having been destroyed by a dog), Alayi, Owerri), 

 Cameroons (Efulen, Okoa, Kumba, Esamesa, Nko'olong, River Ja, 

 Bitye), Gaboon (Camma, Moonda River), across the Belgian Congo, 

 from the lower Congo eastward to the Uelle, Ituri, and Semliki 

 Valleys, and west of northern Lake Tanganyika, to Uganda (Bwamba, 

 Wadelai) and to western Kenya Colony (Kakamega, Yala River). 

 Also, but subspecies uncertain, south in the Rift Valley to north- 

 central Tanganyika Territoiy (Oldeani Bush). In the eastern part of 

 its range this race seems to be limited on the east by the Rift Valley, 

 east of which it is replaced by the next form. There is some question 

 as to its western limits in Nigeria, as the subspecies ^ayot/orsaZis is 

 recorded from Abeokuta and the nominate form from Benin and 

 Owerri. Benin is only about 200 miles east of Abeokuta. 



Prodotiscus insignis ellenbecki Erlanger: ^^ Southern Ethiopia 

 (Daroli, Arussi-Gallaland, and Uanda, south of Addis Abeba), Kenya 

 Colony east of the Rift Valley (Karura, Langata, and Ngong forests 

 in the Nairobi area, Limuru, Thika, Kibwezi, Kyambu, Nyeri, western 



^1 Hetaerodes insignis Cassin, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 8, p. 157, 

 1856. (Moonda River, Gaboon.) 



'2 Prodotiscus insignis flavordorsalis Bannerman, Bull. Brit. Ornith. Club, vol. 

 43, p. 161, 1923. (Beoumi, 650 feet, Ivory Coast.) 



''^Prodotiscus ellenhechi Erlanger; Ornith. Monatsb., vol. 9, p. 182, 1901. 

 (Daroli, Arussi Country.) 



