— 278 — 



but Mr P. A. Tai.bot secured spécimens at Oban in June and 



Vieillot's Black Weaver seem.s to range froni Southern Nigeria 

 eastwards through French Equatorial Africa (Ubangi River) and 

 the North Belgian Congo (Uelle River) to Uganda. Southwards it 

 extends through Cameroon, Gaboon and the Congo Forest to Nor- 

 thern Angola, from ail of which places the bird is represented in 

 the British Muséum. I would specially draw attention to the 

 confusion which has existed between this and the other black 

 species Melanopteryx max^vclli ^nà particularly to Mr G. L. Bâtes 

 remarks on the subject (Cf. Ibis, 1909, pp. 46-47 and Ibis, 191 1, 

 pp. 584-586), Melanopteryx albinucha is still a third species of the 

 genus which I believe to be conhned to Sierra Leone, Libéria and 

 the Gold Coast, and probablv the countries between. 



The very close resemblance between the females of Melanop- 

 teryx nigerrimus and MaUnihns Ciissini and Malimhits coronatiis 

 has been the cause of further endless confusion, which Mr Bâtes 

 with his intimate knowledge of thèse species in the field, has been 

 able to correct (Cf. Ibis, 1909, pp. 39-41) also Ogii.vie-Grant 

 (Ibis, 1917, pp. 74-75). It is, however, verv necessarv that this 

 entire group should be carefullv revised in the light of the know- 

 ledge which we now possess, and that distinguishing characters of 

 each should be clearly set forth. The difficuUv is increased bv the 

 fact that the females of the two species of Maliinbus mentioned 

 above, are apparentlv indistinguishable from one another (1. c, 

 Batse, p. 41) and that thev both occur together. 



It seems to me that we shall simplifv matters if we accept the 

 following as the range of the thee species of Melanoptei vx, and if 

 we keep them as three distinct species : 



1. — Melanopteryx nigerrimus (see range given above). 



2. — Melanopteryx albinucha. Sierra Leone, Libéria, Gold 



Coast {not occurring in Nigeria as stated bv Shelley, 

 Bds of Afr., IV, pt. 2, p. 365). 



