378 Capt. G. E. Shelley on Birds 



a. Bill pale, not black. 



c^ Abdomen orange-red ; under tail-coverts white ; 

 throat white. 

 a^. Sides of head and neck ashy brown ; no white on 



the back levaillnnti. 



l/^. Feathers on the sides of the head and neck and 



the sides of the back white maccloimii. 



62. Melanobucco torquatus. 

 Mpata and Fife. 



63. Campothera abingdoni. 

 Ikawa, 



64. Campothera smithi. 

 Fife. 



65. Dendropicus zanzibari. 

 Ikawa. 



66. Mesopicus griseocephalus. 

 Ikawa. 



67. Pceocephalus meyeri. 

 Fife and Luchinde. 



Although this is the first time P. meyeri has been recorded 

 from Nyasaland, the species ranges from Benguela, Damara- 

 landj and the Transvaal northward into Abyssinia. 



68. SyRNIUM WOODFORDl. 



Ikawa. 



The one specimen in this collection is the most rufous form 

 I have seen of this species, which ranges throughout Eastern 

 Africa northward from Natal, and includes S. riiqricantius 

 Sharpe^ from Mpapwa, which is the darkest variety I have 

 seen. This species is represented in West Africa by S. nu- 

 chule Sharpe, a fairly distinct rufous form, with a near ally 

 [S. bohndorffi) from the Nyam-nyam country. Dr. Reichenow 

 (in Werther's ' Die mittl. Hochl. Deutsch-Ost-Afr.') has 

 lately proposed to recognize three other East- African races 

 under the titles of S. suaRcum, S. umborium, and S. zanzi- 

 barium; but, with the fine series in the British Museum, I 

 have come to the conclusion that S. woodfordi from Eastern 

 Africa varies considerably in the shade of plumage without 

 losing its specific characters. 



