122 CAPT. G. E. SHELLEY ON [Feb. 1, 



5. On a Collection of Birds made by Mr. H. H. Johnston 

 on the Cameroons Mountain. By Captain G. E. 

 Shelley^ F.Z.S. 



[Eeceived January 3, 1887.] 

 (Plates XIII. & XIV.) 



Mr. H. H. Johnston, F.Z.S., well known for his researches on 

 the Congo, and successful expedition to the heights of Kilimanjaro 

 in East Africa, has now sent us some birds from a nearly equally 

 elevated district of Western Africa ; and I am pleased to find in this 

 collection from the Cameroons Mountain an interesting proportion 

 of new species. The collection, which has been sent to me for 

 examination by the Cameroons Committee of the British Association, 

 contains 36 skins referable to 18 species. Of these the following are 

 new to science : — (1) Poliopicus Johns font, (2) Psalidoprocne fidigi- 

 nosa, (3) Laniarius atroflavus, and (4) Ploceus melanog aster. 



Our previous knowledge of the avifauna of the higher part of the 

 Cameroons Mountain is entirely derived from an article by Mr. G. R. 

 Gray (Ann. Nat. Hist. 1862, x. p. 413) on the birds obtained by 

 Capt. R. Burton during his ascent of the mountains in 1861-62'. 

 In 1871 Mr. R. B. Sharpe (P. Z. S. 1871, p. 614) described a 

 collection of birds made by Mr. Crossley in the Cameroons district ; 

 and in 1874 and 1875 Dr. Reichenow, in the ' Journal fiir Orni- 

 thologle,' published the results of his West- African Expedition of 

 1872, during which he visited the Cameroons river and penetrated 

 up the mountain to a height of about 4000 feet. But neither 

 Mr. Crossley nor Dr. Reichenow seemed to have obtained any 

 specimens from the higher elevations to which Capt. Burton and 

 Mr. Johnston have ascended. 



1. POLIOPICUS JOHNSTONI, Sp. n. 



a. S , October, 6000 feet. — A broad black forehead with a buff 

 patch on each side of the base of the culmen ; remainder of the 

 crown and the nape red. Remainder of the upper parts, when the 



engaged in skinning black and golden Shrikes, metallic-green and crimson- 

 breasted Sunbirds, ruddy Chats, olive-green Warblers, dull grey Grosbeaks, and 

 tiny, indefinite, insect-eating birds of blue-grey and russet-brown. 



" In this forest, too, I shot flying Squirrels and small vole-like Eats. These 

 were the only mammals we saw, except when, very rarely, we got a hurried 

 glimpse of a red-coated, white-.stripcd Antelope of the genus Tragelaphu^." 



From Mann's Spring Mr. Johnston transferred his camp to Hunter's Hut 

 (8300 feet), in " a narrow peninsida of forest which pushes up the mountain- 

 side," and subsequently to another spot situated at an elevation of 10,.)00 feet, 

 whence the final ascent was made. He made the summit by boiliug-jDoiut 

 observation to be 13,760 feet, which is about 500 feet less than the usual 

 estimation, — P. L. S.] 



^ See Burton's ' Abeokuta and the Cameroons Mountains.' 2 vols. 8vo. 

 London, 1863. 



