NO. 1411. BIRDS FROM MOUNT KILIMANJARO— OBERHOLSER. 853 



intermediate between cyano.sticfus and inerldionalis^ the blue line across 

 the forehead being- very narrow, in two cases all but ol)solete. These 

 differences, moreover, are quite surely not due to age, as the birds arc 

 all adults; nor to sex, as the same appear in both male and femal(\ 

 The series as a whole, however, is to be referred decidedly to cijajios- 

 tlc'tvs/ but, hailing as it does from an intermediate region, demon- 

 strates with apparent conclusiveness that MeUttojyhagnKcyanostictus is 

 onl}^ subspecitically related to M. nierl(lion(di><; and '^mce ineridumal Is 

 intergrades with M. pu.sil/us, the Kilimaiijaro forur should stand 

 as Jfeliffophagus pusll/as eyanostictus. 



The original description of MelitfojtluKpis cyanost ictus" was based 

 on specimens from Moml)asa and Dschagg'a — the latter, it will be 

 noticed, practically the same as the locality from which our series 

 comes — both of them places where the green-fronted bird {inrrldlonalis 

 Sharpe — eyano.'<f ictus Hartert, not Cabanis), is not known to occur. 

 Doctor Cabanis, not suspecting, of course, the existence of the two 

 forms cyanostictas and )iieridlonaUH, compared his new species with 

 Mellttopliagus pusillus, or, as he called it,- M. erythropterus; there- 

 fore the fact that he did not specificallv mention the presence of the 

 blue frontal band is of comparatively little consequence in determining 

 the identity of the form he was describing. In fact, considered apart, 

 there is nothing at all in the description itself that does not apply 

 equally well to both cyanostietus and inc/'idionalis, as the following- 

 quotation will show: 



''Entschiedeneres blaues Superciliarband, ein deutlicher aus- 

 gepriigtes schmales schon blaues Halsband als Abschluss der gelben 

 Kehle, merklich breitere schw^arze Binde am Fliigel und v^or der 

 Schwanzspitze. " 



Not until several 3^ears later '^ does Cabanis mention having seen other 

 birds of the same species from Natal and Loango, and that he consid- 

 ered these identical with his original specimens of cyanostietus can 

 have little bearing on the case; nor, indeed, is it surprising in view of 

 the great confusion which then existed among the names of birds of 

 this genus, and still less remarkable — in truth, almost inevitable — if 

 some of his examples from Dschagga were intermediate, as are those 

 collected by Doctor Abbott. Doctor Sharpe was the first to do the 

 service of extricating these birds from chaos, and he very properly 

 named the green-fronted bird, until then always confounded with 

 ti'ue cyanostietus, calling it rneridioncdis.'^ 



The ranges of these two forms are complimentary, as those of geo- 

 graphical races ought to be, and do not overlap, although intermediates 

 of various kinds may be expected in the region of their inosculation, 



(iMerops cyanostietus Cabanis, von der Decken's Reisen, III, 1869, p. 34. 



6 Journ. fiir Ornitli., 1875, p. 340. 



cCai. Birds Brit. Mus., XVII, 1892, p. 45. 



