IIYPHANTORNIS VITELLIXUS 443 



Hyphautorois vitellinus uluensis, Neumann, J. f. 0. I'JOO, p. 282 

 Ulii Mts. 



Ploeeus vitellinus uluensis, Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 82 (1901). 



Adult male. Sides of forehead, sides of head, chin and upper throat 

 black ; remainder of the head and the under parts golden yellow, shading 

 gradually into chestnut on the front of the crown, and the middle of the 

 lower throat is slightly washed with that colour ; back of neck and the 

 mantle uniform olive yellow ; lower back and upper tail-coverts golden 

 yellow ; tail olive brown washed with yellow, and with yellowish edges to 

 the feathers ; under wing-coverts and inner margins of the quills pale yellow. 

 "Iris orange red; bill black; feet flesh-colour" (Jackson). Total length 

 5-5 inches, eulmen 0-6, wing 2-8, tail 2-0, tarsus 0-8. Accra (Ussher). 



Adult female. Differs from the full plumaged male in the forehead, 

 crown and back being ashy brown, with broad dark brown centres to the 

 feathers of the mantle and only a slight wash of yellow on the lower back 

 and upper tail-coverts ; lesser wing-coverts ashy brown ; median and greater 

 wing-coverts and the inner secondaries broadly edged with buff; under 

 parts buff, slightly shaded with yellow on the cheeks and throat. Iris 

 brown ; bill brown ; lower mandible whitish ; feet brownish flesh-colour. 

 Wing 2-6. 2 , 10. 2. 72, Accra (T. E. Buckley). 



The Vitelline Masked -Weaver ranges from 18" N. lat. 

 southward to the Ulu highlands, 2° S. lat. 



Mr. Oscar Neumann has separated as a subspecies {H, 

 vitelUmis uluensis) his specimens from the Ulu Mountains and 

 Nguruman ; I have not seen the tjqjes, but it appears to me 

 extremely improbable that they should differ from Mr. 

 Jackson's series from Karaassia and Elgeyu and from Emin's 

 from Wadelai, which all agree perfectly with specimens in the 

 British Museum from Accra and Senegambia. The specimen 

 with the least black on the forehead, I have seen, is labelled 

 " Nubia (Verreaux) " in the British Museum. 



The type of H. vitellinus came from Senegambia, and the 

 species is represented from tliat country, by a full plumaged 

 male in the British Museum and one from Goree in the Lisbon 

 Museum. It has not been recorded fi-om Liberia, but on the 

 Gold Coast it is fairly evenly distributed, at least towards the 

 coast, where T. E. Buckley and myself met with it near Cape 



