1878.] MR. F. NICHOLSON ON BIRDS FROM DARRA-SALAM. 353 



A second specimen, marked female, resembles in general that 

 described, but is rather smaller, and all the colours are duller, par- 

 ticularly the red of the throat and chest, so that the black-brown of 

 the back forms a broad ring between the chin and breast. The 

 under wing-coverts are whitish, and the pale internal margin of the 

 primaries more conspicuous. It is probably a younger bird. 



Habitat. Island of Rotumah, Central Pacific. Native name 

 '' Aramea." I ought to mention that Mr. Sharpe has lately re- 

 ceived, in a collection from Erromango, one of the New Hebrides, 

 a specimen of this bird almost identical with mine in every respect. 

 This is very curious ; for Erromango is far removed from Rotumah, 

 and the neighbouring island of Tanna is inhabited by a distinct 

 species (Myzomela cardinalis (Gm.), figured in Latham's Synopsis, 

 vol. i. pi. xxxiii. fig. 2). 



4. A List of the Birds collected by Mr. E. C. Buxton at 

 Darra-Salam, on the coast of Africa opposite Zanzibar. 

 By Francis Nicholson, F.Z.S. 



[Received March 4, 1878.] 



My friend Mr. Buxton, whose ornithological collection from 

 Sumatra was described by the Marquis of Tweeddale last year 

 ('Ibis,' 1877, p. 283), and whose name is therefore already well 

 known to naturalists, has recently returned from a short visit to the 

 Zanzibar coast, and has brought with him a small collection of birds. 

 These he has lent to me for description ; and I give a list of the 

 species in the present paper, merely adding my regret that it is not 

 a longer one. Owing, however, to a sharp attack of fever, Mr. 

 Buxton was only able to remain on the coast a little more than a 

 fortnight ; and this accounts for the smallness of the collection. I 

 feel sure that ornithologists will agree that, considering the col- 

 lecting of birds was not the primary object of Mr. Buxton's expedi- 

 tion, the number of species is not a meagre oue for a fortnight's 

 shooting. 



Our knowledge of East-African ornithology is not very extensive 

 at present ; and in the present paper I have referred to the only two 

 essays which have dealt with the birds of the Zanzibar district. 



These are as follows : — 



1. Hartlaub, G. Report on a Collection of Birds formed in the 

 Island of Zanzibar by Dr. John Kirk.— P. Z. S. 1867, p. 823. 



2. Sharpe, R. B. On a Collection of Birds from Mombas, in 

 Eastern Africa.— P. Z. S. 1873, p. 710. 



There remains also the list of birds procured by the late Baron 

 von der Decken, and described by Dr. Cabanis in the third volume 

 of his ' Reisen in Ost-Afrika,' and the inestimable work of Drs. Finsch 

 and Hartlaub, the ' Vogel Ost-Afrika's.' I have followed the order 

 and classification adopted in the last-mentioned book. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1878, No. XXIII. 23 



