NOVITATES ZOOLOQICAB XXVII. 1920. 459 



558. Camaroptera griseoviridis harterti Zedl. = Camaro'ptera hrevicavdata harterti. 

 Gamaroptera griseoviridis harterti Zedlitz, Jawrn. f. Om. 1911. p. 342 (Angola). 



Type: ^ ad., Canhoca, N. Angola, 20. xi. 1903. W. J. Ansorge leg. 

 No. 1,198. 



Zedlitz's Revision of the genus Camaroptera, in Journ. f. Om. 1911, pp. 328- 

 345, advances our knowledge of this difficult little genus very much and is an 

 excellent piece of work. Unfortunately, however, it contains a fundamental 

 nomenclatorial error, because the author, following Reichenow, misunderstood 

 Cretzschmar's hrevicaudata. Neither the figure nor the description can possibly 

 warrant the assumption that hrevicaudata is a form of what is correctly called 

 superciliaris, with its bright yellowish-green upperside and golden-yellow forehead, 

 cheeks, and superciliary lines. Zedlitz says that the figures in the Atlas can be 

 trusted, but it is impossible to stick to them in detail, as a comparison with 

 actual specimens of other plates will prove. Moreover, Cretzschmar does not 

 talk of a " schon griine Oberseite," but clearly describes the upperside as oliva- 

 ceous, merging into pale brown on the head and nape, and with a fine green tinge on 

 back and wing-coverts ! Evidently the latter has been overdone by the artist, 

 and the types are the two specimens now in the Senckenbergian Museum, as 

 carefully described by Zedlitz. Cretzschmar's description is that of the younger 

 bird, which has some green on the back. To make Zedlitz's and Reichenow's 

 grouping of the forms acceptable, they had to resort to the somewhat wild theory 

 that Cretzschmar's brevicaudata is a form of what is rightly called superciliaris, 

 a group only known from the West African f aunal region, the type of which they 

 assumed to be lost, and which had defied all efforts of future collectors to re- 

 discover it ! As, however, Riippell's collections were made in Eastern Kordofan, 

 and Butler and others found there the bird called by Zedlitz G. griseoviridis 

 griseoviridis, this form must be the true G. bre/oicaudata brevicaudata. 



559. Camaroptera brevicaudata rothschildi Zedl. = Gamaroptera superciliaris 



rothschildi. 



Gamaroptera brevicaudata rothschildi Zedlitz, Journ. f. Om. 1911. p. 331 (Gabun, north to the Gold 

 Coast). 



Type: ^ ad., Abanga River, Ogowe River, Gabun, 6.xi.l907. W. J. 

 Ansorge leg. No. 937. 



560. Canmaioptera brevicaudata pulchra Zedl. = Gamaroptera superciliaris 



pulchra. 



Camaroptera hrevicaudata pulchra Zedlitz, Journ. f. Om. 1911. p. 331 (North Angola, east to Lake 

 Tanganyika). 



Type : $ ad., Canhoca, Angola, 15. xi. 1903. W. J. Ansorge leg. No. 1,134 

 (not 1,143). 



It seems to me that pulchra and rothschildi are recognizable subspecies ; 

 should the two not be separable, rothschildi would be a synonym, as pulchra stands 

 first on the page. In any case, more material is desired to confirm these forms. 

 A female named flavigularis by Zedlitz, from the Ogowe River, is, I have no doubt 

 at all, the young of rothschildi. Could all flavigularis be young birds ? Then 

 rothschildi would be a synonym of flavigularis 1894 ! 



