— 34° — 



Cyanomitra cyanolaema. 



Nectarinia cyanolaema jard., Contr. Orn., 1851. — Type loca- 

 lity : Fernando Po. 



The four spécimens of the Blue-throated Brown Sunbircl wlii^ h 

 Mr LowE shot at Iju water works, near Lagos (2cf, 2ç) do not 

 entirely agrée with typical examples from Fernando Po. they are 

 rather smaller (wings cfc? 64,65 mm.) and somewhat grever on the 

 unùerside. The island birds hâve wings of 69-72 mm, in the maie 

 birds, and mainland skins certainly appear to average a smaller 

 size. A bird from the upper Congo (D. Carruthers, coll.) has a 

 wing of 67 mm. but there are others from the coast which are 

 almost, if not quite, as large as Fernando Po skins. 



1 do not however consider that we should be justified in sepa- 

 rating the mainland bird in spite of the Nigérian females appearing 

 to hâve the underparts lighter. 



In addition to Mr Lowes spécimens from Lagos we hâve two 

 skins from Burutu in Southern Nigeria which Mr Robin Kemp 

 obtained in April. 



Range. — The range of this Sunbird extends from the Gambia to 

 Angola and Eastwards to the Semliki valley. We hâve spécimens 

 in the British Muséum from the Gold Coast, Southern Nigeria, 

 Fernando Po, Cameroon, Gaboon, Angola, North Belgian Congo, 

 upper Congo, Congo Forest and Semliki Valley; Reichenow in 

 addition records it (V. A., III, p. 456) from Gambia, Sierra 

 Leone, Libéria and from vanious places in the Congo Eastwards to 

 Buganda. There are no races of this Sunbird described. 



Observation. — A bird which shows very much the same type of 

 colouring as C. cyanolaema is C. diissumieri from the Seychelle 

 Istands, save that the island birds lack the metallic feathers on 

 the crown, otherwise the one species might easily be mistaken 

 for the other. Anyone working at thèse Seychelle Island sunbirds 

 should note that on the same islandMohé, the Sunbird named 

 rnahei by Nicoll is living side by side with the other Seychelle 



