Annals of the Transvaal Museum 
173 
colour throughout life or, which is very likely, to be displaced at a later 
age by black or whatever colour the yellow may have encroached upon. 
This thesis is supported by the presence of black tips in the ear-coverts 
of the type of C. haagneri. Under the circumstances it seems to me to 
be evident that the type of C. haagneri is nothing more nor less than an 
abnormally coloured specimen of C. hicolor, which would very likely (having 
regard to the black tips to the ear-coverts) in the next moult have reverted 
to the normal coloration. 
I may mention that the type of C. haagneri is a female, and the parti- 
coloured specimen a male ; but it is not likely one species would be 
different in colour in the two sexes, seeing that this does not occur in any 
other species of the genus. We must, therefore, reject any hypothesis 
that may be brought forward on the grounds that these differences are 
typical of the two sexes of a species distinct from C. bicolor. 
Cinnyris chalybeus, (L.). 
There appear to be five forms of this species in South Africa, judging 
by the material available for comparison. According to W. L. Sclater 
(Ibis, 1911, p. 274), the typical form, of which he examined six males from 
Rlipfontein, differs from subalaris, Reichenow, in having a shorter bill 
and no wash of yellowish on the lower breast. He does not seem to have 
had typical specimens of subalaris from Pondoland, and, therefore, placed 
specimens from Knysna (all females and juveniles), Durban, Zululand, 
and the eastern Transvaal under that name. With more material and 
the advantage of Mr. Sclater’s notes, I have arrived at a different con- 
clusion. A single specimen from Port Elizabeth agrees with his diagnosis 
of the typical form, having a short culmen and the abdominal region with 
hardly a trace of the yellowish suffusion found in specimens from farther 
east. I have found in many cases that the typical forms of species found 
in the neighbourhood of the Cape Peninsula extend their range eastwards 
as far as Knysna and Port Elizabeth, and beyond that are replaced by 
other forms ; and I have no doubt that this is another instance. Six 
specimens from Port Alfred differ from the one from Port Elizabeth in 
having a faint wash of yellowish on the abdomen, One from Grahamstown 
is yellower than those from Port Alfred ; and single specimens from 
Lusikisiki (East Pondoland) and Matatiele (East Griqualand) are like that 
from Grahamstown. Two from Port St. Johns District (probably the type 
locality of subalaris) are yellower than the last, and differ from all the 
others in having the under tail-coverts yellowish like the abdomen. Single 
specimens from Wakkerstroom and Haenertsburg (near Woodbush) differ 
from all the preceding in having darker grey on the abdominal region and 
hardly a trace of yellowish. All these specimens are males in full plumage, 
and, with the exception of the specimen from Port Elizabeth, give 
measurements of the culmen of about 22 mm. Briefly the outstanding 
characters of these forms are as follows : — 
1. Culmen less than 20 mm. — Cape to Port Elizabeth. 
Culmen more than 20 mm. — North and east of the Sundays 
River, Cape Province. 
