1922.] ('Orythornis loucogaster hi the Cameroon. 44l 



subspecies found in southern Cameroon and Gaboon is 

 smaller than the typical island-form. But he made a mistake 

 in adding the Congo to its range, and in ap[)lying the name 

 Is pidina leo pohli Dubois to the (/ameroon bird. The coloured 

 plate accompanying Dultois's original descri})tion * shoAvs 

 clearly that this little Kingfisher from the central ('ongo has 

 a deep blue superciliary or tem])oral line, instead of a rufons 

 one glossed with lilac. As I shall show, leopoldi is a distinct 

 species — or at least an unusually well-marked subspecies — 

 and the Cameroon bird is still without a subspecific name. 



Although it seems scarcely necessar}' to refer the King- 

 fishers of this small grou[) to Alcedo, they certainly do not 

 belong to Ispidlna, if we accept the generic characters as 

 usually stated, for the bill is here plainly higher than broad 

 at the nostril. So they are best placed in < 'ori/thoruis. jMr. 

 W. de W. Miller lias already shown f that a subfamily 

 distinction cannot rightly be drawn, as in Sharpe's ' Hand- 

 list,*" between ( 'on/thornis and Ispidina. Even their generic 

 demarcation is not very trenchant. 



Neumann's statement as to the larger size of CorytJiornis 

 leHco(faster from Fernando Po is borne out bymy examination 

 of the material in the British JMuseum, as well as at Tring, 

 Tervueren. Berlin, and Pittsburg. To be sure, only three 

 specimens from Fernando Po could be found, but as compared 

 with twenty-five specimens from the neighbouring part of the 

 continent they show markedly greater dimensions. Indeed, 

 the two adults from the island — in length of bill, its height at 

 nostril, and in length of wing — exceed every member of the 

 series of twenty-two mainland adults. The greater thickness 

 of the bill, especially, is very noticeable in the island-birds, 

 even though it may seem less striking when expressed in 

 tenths of millimetres. But this difference has an exact parallel 

 in the larger bills of Corythornis nais {=[/aleritci) and ('. 

 thomensis, island-forms of the Gulf of Guinea, as compareil 

 with the continental C. cristata %. 



* Annates Afiis. Congo, Zoologie, (4) i. fasc. 1, 1905, p. 10, pi. vi. fig. ]. 

 t Bull. .Auier. Mils. XaL Hist. x.\.\i. 191i', p. 24l'. 

 I I follow Claude ( irnnt, Ibis, 191o, p. ii(53, in the use of Vroeg's name 

 for the Millachite-crested Kinglisher. 



