collected in Southern Cameroon. 
97 
1921.] 
honour of Mr. Wells, of the bird-room, British Museum, 
who first drew my attention to the differences between the 
Cameroon and Angola birds. We have in the British 
Museum collection a good series of birds from Uganda, 
the Belgian Congo, Cameroon, northern Angola, the Gold 
Coast, and a single bird from Nyasaland. When these 
birds are laid out in geographical order, it is at once 
apparent that two forms are represented, but the distri¬ 
bution of the two is at first puzzling. 
To begin with, Cabanis (J. f. O. 1882, p. 230) described 
Cercococcyx mechowi from Angola from a specimen obtained 
by Major von Mecliow. No particulars are given as to 
the exact, place where Mechow obtained his type, but I 
have ascertained that this German traveller made an expe¬ 
dition into northern Angola and published a large-scale 
map (Karte 'der Kuango-Expedition) in 1884 at Berlin. 
A copy of this may be seen in the map-room of the 
Royal Geographical Society. Yon Mechow appears to 
have ascended the Kuansa River and prepared the sheets 
of his map from Dondo to Malange, where he left the 
Kuansa River and trecked northwards, joining the head¬ 
waters of the Cam bo River. This river he followed to Tembo- 
Aluma, where the Cambo joins the Zaida-Kuango. Thence 
he proceeded by way of the Kuango to Camalamba. No 
connected account of his journey seems to have been 
published. We have six birds in the British Museum from 
northern Angola collected by the late Dr. Ansorge at N'dalo 
Tan do (a place situated on the line between St. Paul 
de Loando and Kassandje), and these are very different 
from specimens collected in Cameroon and in Uganda. 
Unfortunately the original description by Cabanis of 
C. mechowi does not accurately fit either the Angola or the 
Cameroon and t Uganda birds ; but as the genus Cercococcyx 
was founded on Mechow’s specimen obtained in Angola, 
we must restrict Cercococcyx mechowi mebhowi to Angola 
specimens. 
These Angola birds, C. m. mechowi Cabanis, have the 
upper parts greyish brown, strongly washed with copper- 
ser. xi.— VOL. III. 
H 
