Birds from fche White Nile. 5 



34. Melittophagus pusillus ocularis Rchw. One of our spe- 

 cimens, a male of 168 mm (about 6.5 inches) total length, shows a 

 blue streak above the eye, in this respect resembling Melittophagus 

 meridionalis from southern jDarts of Africa. After writing the 

 above, I find that Reichenow has put down M. pusillus ocularis 

 as a new subspecies partly just on the score of that blue streak 

 over the eye. We found this species already along the railway 

 north of Shendy and in the gardens of Khartum. 



35. Merops viridissimus Sw. Shot at Khartum in the be- 

 ginning of February. 



36. Merops nubicus Gm. No sooner had we entered the 

 "grass and reed bordered region" of the White River than this 

 beautiful bee-eater began to be common. It was one of the 

 birds that invariably and in great numbers frequented the big 

 grass fires. 



37. Upupa epops L. +. Not uncommon along the White River. 



38. Scoptelus aterrimus (Steph.). Not uncommon in the 

 brushwood along the White River. Total length of the male 

 251 mm (= 9.7 inches). The measure given in the Catalogue of 

 birds is "about 8,8 inches". Our adult male has no grey subter- 

 minal spots on the quills 1 . There are only very minute white 

 patches on the underside of the outermost rectrices. Five spe- 

 cimens, all of which I have had the opportunity of examining in 

 this respect, had all of them only one of the outermost rectrices 

 marked, and only with a very minute spot. Nevertheless, our spe- 

 cimens having been collected within the range of 8. notatus 0. 

 Salvin, I had named them so, though I was far from considering 

 the species to be valid. — Afterwards I found that Reichenow 

 does not consider S. notatus to be a valid species. 



39. Irrisor erythrorhynchus (Lath.) smc. Our single specimen 

 of this species was shot at our farthest station south of Kaka. 



40. Lophoceros erythrorhynchus (Temm.). This hornbill was 

 a pretty common species along the White River. But in February 



1 Heuglin (Ornithologie N. O. Afrikas P. 220) has already remarked 

 this concerning one of his specimens; he also says that the white patches on 

 tli«' rectrices are wanting but that he found them on a specimen from SenegamMa. 



