Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 
249 
There are no specimens in the British Museum from German East Africa, 
and Dr. Hartert has kindly informed me that the Tring Museum does not 
possess any either. 
“ As this race has been founded principally on size, I append for 
comparative purposes the wing measurements of all the adult <$$ in the 
British Museum Collection : — Gambia, 221 ; Portuguese Guinea, 221, 218 ; 
Gold Coast Colony, 229, 222, 219, 214 ; Nigeria, 222, 197 ; Welle River, 
223; Bahr-el-Ghazal, 219, 216; Sudan, 250, 234, 230, 222, 223, 219; 
Abyssinia, 238, 227, 226, 221, 219 ; South Arabia, 251, 235 ; Uganda, 
223, 222 ; British East Africa, 229, 228, 223, 222 ; Nyasaland, 209, 208, 
206 ; Zambesi, 226, 221, 212, 200 ; Mashonaland, 234, 222, 214, 211, 208 ; 
Damaraland, 225, 222, 219 ; Bechuanaland, 237 ; Transvaal, 224, 218, 
213, 211. 
“ It will be seen that considerable variation exists in size in birds 
from the same locality, as, for instance, the two from Nigeria, the six from 
Sudan, and the four from the Zambesi ; specimens from the first and last 
localities overlapping Mr. Austin Roberts’ measurements.” 
At first sight these figures seem to be convincing ; but upon closer 
scrutiny it becomes apparent that too much has been made again of 
political areas, and no definite localities are quoted. The question of 
exact localities is an important one, but not the only one to be considered. 
It will be observed that there is a mean around which the majority of 
figures are clustered, and it will be noted in the figures I shall give 
hereafter, that the South African males in the collection of the Transvaal 
Museum vary also ; but in every case where the length falls short of the 
average, the bill, though black at the tip, still shows by the development 
of the casque that the specimen has not reached maturity. Grant’s record 
of very large specimens from Mashonaland and Bechuanaland seems to show 
that a large race of “ epirhinus ” occurs there. Grant has quite over- 
looked the possibility of the existence of a large and a small species side 
by side, such as, for instance, Cinnyris ajer and C. chalybeus, which species 
may again vary in size in different localities. I had this in mind after 
noting the peculiar distribution of these supposed races of Lophoceros 
nasutus, and particularly drew attention to this when describing “ maraisi ,” 
as, if their ranges are found to overlap, then the subspecies must be 
considered to be true species. The character on which “ nasutus ” is separ- 
ated from f ' epirhinus ,” the shape of the casque, appears to me to be of 
specific, if not indeed generic, value, and I was curious before, and am 
still more so now, to know whether intermediates between the two alleged 
races are known. Grant unfortunately makes no remark upon the shape 
of the casque, and we must therefore conclude that the Nyasaland birds, 
whose “ locality ” is not far removed from that of the types of “ maraisi ” 
and whose measurements come very near to those of “ maraisi ,” are 
referable to “ epirhinus ” on the shape of the casque. As “ maraisi ,” 
which has the casque shaped as in “ nasutus ,” occurs in the more south- 
easterly parts of German East Africa, there seems to be no reason why it 
should not also occur in the Zambesi valley, there being no obstacles to its 
extension so far south. It would therefore be well to examine specimens 
from the Zambesi valley more carefully to see if both forms do not occur 
