Birds from British East Africa and Uganda. 457 



wing- feathers and tail as black. Scopoli, moreover, says 

 that the tail is not acuminate, but this statement was un- 

 doubtedly founded on the plate, which certainly shows the 

 tail rounded; though this is not borne out in Sonnerat's 

 description. 1 suggest that Sonnerat's bird originally came 

 from America and was accidentally mixed up with his New 

 Guinea collection, as both the size and markings agree more 

 with Colaptes or ChrysoptUus ; Sonnerat's bird appears, 

 however, at the moment to be indeterminate. 



The elimination of these two names, which should never 

 have found their way into the African list at all, really 

 simplifies the situation, and fixes the Cape bird on to 

 Levaillant^s excellent plate. 



Prof. Neumann in the Journ. fiir Orn. 1900, p. 206, has 

 created a race under the name Dendropicus yuineensis car- 

 dinalis, which is of course absurd. 



This group is admittedly difficult, inasmuch as the forms 

 resemble each other very closely, and a certain amount of 

 individual variation occurs; so that only comprehensive 

 general characters can be taken as diagnostic features, either 

 of colour, pattern, or size. Hitherto several of the names 

 have been hopelessly misused, as, for instance, hartlaubii, 

 zanzibari, and lafresnayi, especially the first, which has been 

 recorded far to the south of the Zambesi, where it certainly 

 does not exist. 



The very large series in the British Museum collection 

 shows that the following species and subspecies are recog- 

 nisable : — 



I. Barring of mantle and wings on the surface, clear and 

 well defined. Appearance of upper surface more black 

 and white. 



Dendropicos fuscescens fuscescens. 



Picus fuscescens Vieill. Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. vol.xxvi. 

 1818, p. 86 : ex Levaillant, forests of the Cape, cf. Ois. 

 d'Afr. vol. vi. 1808, p. 25, pi. 253. figs. 1 & 2. 



Oi t\x\9,, Picus fulviscapusljicht. (Verz.Doubl. 1823, p. 1] : 

 Terra Caffrorum), Colaptes cajjensis Steph. (Gen.Zool. vol. xiv. 



