228 PARUS LEUCOMELAS. 



The Dusky Black Tit inhabits the Gold Coast, Gaboon and 

 British Bast Africa. 



Dr. R. B. Sharpe has referred to this species a specimen 

 in the Leyden Museum obtained at Elmina, on the Gold Coast, 

 by the late Governor Nagtglas, in September, 1861. Mr. 

 Zenker has procured the species in Camaroons. 



The type, which is now in the British Museum, came from 

 Gaboon, where, according to Verreaux, the species arrives in 

 the beginning of September and seeks its insect food in the 

 woods, where rarely more than a pair are to be seen together, 

 and the sexes are similar in plumage. It has also been 

 recorded from Gaboon in the list of Marche and De Com- 

 piegne's collection. 



In Equatorial Africa Mr. Jackson collected at Mandi, on 

 April 10, 1898, an adult male similar to the type of the species, 

 an apparently adult female and two full grown young birds, 

 a male and female. On account of the white spots on the 

 wing-coverts of the immature birds and the adult female, 

 he distinguished the eastern bird as Poms vigricinereus. 



Parns leucomelas. 



Parus leucomelas, Eiipp. N. Wirb. V6g. p. 100, pi. 37, fig. 2 (1838) ; 

 Heugl. Orn. N. 0. Afr. p. 407 (1870) ; Pelz. Verb.. Zool.-bot. Wien. 

 xxsi. pp. 145, 609 (1881) Mabero, Muggi ; Sharpe, Ibis, 1891, p. 595 

 Kitosh; Jackson, Ibis, 1899, p. 638 Ntabi ; Grant, Ibis, 1900, p. 145 

 Abyssinia. 



Melaniparus leucomelas, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Genov. 1888, p. 243 Slwa. 



Parus leucopterus (nee Swains.), Hartl. Orn. W. Afr. p. 70 (1857) ; id. 

 J. f. O. 1861, p. 161 Bissao, Cape Lopez; Monteiro, Ibis, 1862, 

 p. 338 Angola; Blanf. Geol. and Zool. Abyss. 1870, p. 356; Sharpe, 

 Ibis, 1870, p. 480 Volta B. ; id. and Bouvier, Bull. S. Z. France, 

 1877, p. 476 Congo ; Eeichen. J. f. O. 1891, p. 392 Togo ; 1892, p. 55 

 Uganda; Eendall, Ibis, 1892, p. 216 Gambia; Shelley, B. Afr. I. 

 No. 115 (1896); Hartert, Nov. Zool. 1899, p. 415 Gambaga. 



Melaniparus leucopterus, Hartert, J. f. O. 1886, p. 579 Niger. 



