. ... 294 — 



SuBFAMii.v ESTRJLDINAE. 



Spermestes cuculiatus cuculiatus. 



Sperniestes cuculiatus Swainson, Birds oi West Africa, I, 1837, 

 p. 201. — Tvpe localitv : Senegambia. 



Mr LowE shot five of thèse little Bronze Mannekins at Iju, 

 Lagos in December 19 iq and Roiun Kemp obtained it at Agoulerie 

 in June 1905. 



From Northern Nigeria we hâve immature spécimens from 

 Lokoja (FoRBEs). 



Examining the very large séries in the Natm^al Historv Mnseum, 

 it is évident that there bas been considérable confusion between 

 S. cuculiatus and S. scutatus. Thèse two birds are so closelv allied 

 that the latter must in future be considered a subspecies of the 

 former. 



Manv spécimens in the National Collection hâve in mv opinion 

 been wronglv named, for instance the large séries obtained bv the 

 Ruwenzori expédition and others from Uganda which I believe 

 to be S. c. scutatus and nol S. c. cuculiatus. Likewise the 

 birds collected bv Ansorgk in Angola I would refer to S. c. scu- 

 tatus. 



Shei.i.ev (Birds of Africa, I\' , pt. i, p. 170) distinguishes ^c/zA//'/^^ 

 from cuculiatus solelv bv the absence in the former of anv metallic 

 bronzv-green on the sides of the chest, which are brown, with 

 broad white terminal edges to ail the feathers. Now I do not 

 believe that the two forms can be so readilv distinguished. The 

 bronzv-green gloss is not entirelv absent in S. c. scutatus and 

 adniittedlv it is a character liable to variation even in typical 

 examples of S. c. cuculiatus from West Africa. That the two torms 

 meet in the Bahr-el-Ghazal, (where an apparently intermediate 

 race is to be found, cf. Sci.ater and Praed, Ibis 191 8, p, 454), in 

 the Belgian Congo and probablv in Northern Angola, I believe to 

 be the case : I do not believe that S. c. cuculiatus extends right 

 across Africa into British Kast Africa. A single example trom 

 Rimo is however a tvpical bird. 



