On Birds from Fort Chiqnaqua, Mashonuland. 567 



portion of tliose that have been recorded from the colony : 

 see Salvin's list ('The Ibis/ 1885-1886), in which about 

 620 species are catalogued. To make a representative col- 

 lection of them would require years of work, but would well 

 repay anyone who had the time and means for carrying 

 it out. 



XL VII I. — On a Collection of Birds from Fort Chiquaqua, 

 Mashonuland. By J. Lawrence Sowerby. IFith Notes 

 by R. Bowdler Sharpe, LL.D., &c. 



(Plate XII. fig. 1.) 



[After the suppression of the late rebellion in Mashona- 

 land, Mr. Sowerby was in command of a detachment of the 

 B.S.A. Mounted Police at Fort Chiquaqua, and was able for 

 the first time to study the birds of the district. A'^ery little 

 has been written about the ornithology of Mashonaland : 

 the principal essays on the subject are the following : — 



Shklley, Q. E. — On a Collection of Birds made by Mr. J. S. Jameson 

 in Sontli-eastern Africa, with Notes by Mr. T. A.yres. Ibis, 1882, 

 pp. 236-265, 349-368, pi. vii. 



Marshall, Guy A. K. Notes on a small Collection of Birds from 

 Mashonaland, Ibis, 189G, pp. 241-246. 



When it is remembered that, owing to the difficulties of 

 transport, the collector could seldom obtain any shot except 

 pellets of large size, and that Mr, Sowerby's collecting had 

 to be done with a Lee-Metford rifle, tlie excellent condition 

 of his skins is really wonderful. The new Barbet described 

 below was killed with his rifle, as well as the Honey- 

 Guide, and perhaps the tough skins of these species facilitated 

 their preservation ; but it is not given to every young orni- 

 thologist to shoot a Hoopoe wath a bullet, and then to make 

 a good skin of it. 



The principal interest in the present collection consists in 

 the discovery of several species in Mashonaland identical with 

 Angolan forms, such as Mclierajj mechuivi and Monlicola 



