423 Mr. C. H. B. Grant on a Collection of 



Centropus monachus fischeri. 



Centrojms fischeri Reichw. Journ. fiir Orn. 1887, p. 57 : 

 Niakatschi, N.E. Victoria Nyanza (Kavirondo Country). 



Back chestnut-brown, mixed with or entirely washed with 

 dark olive or blackish brown, including also the ends of the 

 inner secondaries and flight-feathers. 



Range. Eastwards of a line through the Sobat River to 

 the east shore of Victoria Nyanza, throughout the Upper 

 Nile Valley, Egyptian Sudan, to north Angola and Gold 

 Coast Colony. 



The large series in the British Museum collection shows 

 that specimens from Uganda, the Upper Nile Valley, north 

 Angola, and the mainland along tiie Gulf of Guinea are in- 

 distinguishable both in size and coloration, and therefore 

 the following names become synonyms : — 



Centropus monachus occidentalis Neum. Bull. B. O. C. 

 vol. xxi. 1908, p. 77 : Ogowe River, Gaboon. 



Centropus monachus angolensis Neum. op. cit. : Canho(ja, 

 north Angola. 



Centropus heuglini Neum. Verb. V. Intern. Ornitli. Kongr. 

 for 1910, 1911, p. 504, pi. i. : Bahr-el-Gliazal. 



Shelley, in the ' Catalogue of Birds Brit. Mus.^ vol. xix. 

 1891, p. 359, says that he considers the C. fischeri of Keichw. 

 to be applicable to the young of C. anselli Sharpe (P. Z. S. 

 1874, p. 204, pi. xxxiii. fig. 1 : Danger river, Galjoon), but 

 the description and measurements agree well with the dark 

 race of C. monachus, and I have therefore adopted Reichenow^s 

 name for it. 



It is worthy of note that in worn specimens the tail fades 

 to a coppery brown, approaching somewhat the coloration 

 of Centropus cupreicaudatus Reich w. (Orn. Monatsb. 1896, 

 p. 53 : Angola), though that species is at once distinguished 

 by its much larger size, and by having the rump as Avell as 

 the tail always clear coppery brown, the former being 

 barred. The range of this bird is from Angola to Lake 

 Ngami and the Zambesi Valley to Angoniland, Nyasa- 

 land. 



