-4-- 



466 Capt. G. E. Shelley on Birds 



13, Agapornis liliante, sp. n. (Plate XII.) 



Head and throat brick-red, inclining to vermilion towards 

 the forehead, with the back of the head and hinder neck 

 greenish yellow ; remainder of the plumage bright grass- 

 green, slightly paler and yellower on the underparts ; inner 

 webs of the quills dark brown ; tail with a blackish sub- 

 terminal band and a scarlet basal patch on all bvit the centre 

 feathers. Bill rosy red, fading into white at the base of the 

 upper mandible. Total length 5*3 inches, culmen 0"75, wing 

 2-7, tail rS, tarsus 0*55. 



Hab. Upper Shire, Nyasaland. 



A male and two females, nearly similar in plumage, from 

 Fort Liwondi, Upper Shiro (January 1894), are in the col- 

 lection. The species would come into the red-billed division 

 of Section A of Count Salvadori's key (Cat. B. xx. p. 506), 

 having no blue whatever on the back and upper tail-coverts. 



I name this pretty Love-bird after Miss Lilian Elizabeth 

 Lutley Sclater, only sister of Capt. Sclater, R.E., who was 

 chief of Mr. J ohnston's staff during the first two years of his 

 administration, and who prepared the chart of Nyasaland 

 from which the present map (p. 463) was copied. 



This is evidently the species met with by Sir John Kirk, 

 and believed by him to be Agapornis roseicollis, of which he 

 writes (Ibis, 1864, p. 329) : — " Found in one spot, limited to 

 about twenty miles, on the Shiro, between Nyassa and the 

 rapids. It was never seen elsewhere, but was found there 

 on two occasions. It is gregarious. ■*' 



Mr. A. Whyte observes : — " Love-bird, from Fort Liwondi, 

 Upper Shire river. Mr. Johnston prociired several of these 

 Love-birds from Mr. Whicker, the collector at Liwondi 

 station, B. C. A. We had several of them for a considerable 

 time in the aviary at Zomba. My own became quite recon- 

 ciled to confinement, and lived for some time in a large 

 compartment in harmony with Weaver-birds, Gallinulas, 

 Touracous, &c. Ultimately, however, the large-billed Por- 

 phyrios resented their presence and ill-used them, and finally 

 killed them. In its natural state this Love-bird is found in 

 flocks on the wooded hills on the east bank of the Upper 

 Shire." 



