429 
Expedition to the Zambesi River. 
9'7b inches, wing* 4*1. Iris black; bill, tip orange-yellow, 
base claret-colour; legs and feet dark brown. 
We found these birds most difficult to skin, quite as had 
as the Trogons. 
180. PCEOCEPHALUS MEYERI (Rupp.). 
Pceocephalus meyeri erythreee, Oscar Neumann, Ornith. 
Monatsberichte, vii. p. 2 (1899). 
Pceocephalus meyeri transvaalensis, id. ibid. 
Fairly plentiful from Tete onwards. Observed generally 
in companies, but now and again in couples, frequenting the 
wooded banks of dried-up watercourses dotted with pools. 
At the end of August this species was breeding, when all 
the males kept company together. 
After a careful examination of our series and of the tine 
material in the British Museum, we are unable to recognize 
the validity of the two subspecies. 
According to Mr. Oscar Neumann, the characteristics of 
P. in. erythrece (from Kokai) are: (1) a bluish sea-green 
rump; (2) upper parts washed with olive-green. Of P. m. 
transvaalensis : (1) a slight olive-green wash on the upper 
parts; (2) a little larger wing-measurement. 
Among the fine series of P. meyeri in the British Museum 
there are eight specimens obtained at Kokai (Jesse & 
Blanford). 
All of these birds were killed in the same month (July 
1868), within a day or two of each other, and are without 
doubt freshly-moulted birds. The upper parts have a dis¬ 
tinct olive-green wash, and the rump and underparts are 
bluish green. In this plumage they are typical of P. erythrece. 
In the same collection there are also specimens of P. meyeri , 
obtained in the Transvaal in July [Ayres). They belong to 
the subspecies P. transvaalensis. These, again, are freshly- 
moulted birds, and are identical with those obtained at Kokai, 
except that the olive-green wash on the upper parts is a little 
less strong. 
Five specimens in our series, killed at the end of August 
onward, as well as others from the Zambesi in the British 
F 
