1921 .] collected in Southern Cameroon. 103 
all show the characters which Reichenow assigned to this 
race. In no single specimen is there any trace of the pale 
blue eyebrow streak as in M. g. gularis , and in all but 
two the feathers of the breast are streaked intermittently 
with red. 
In addition to the specimens obtained by Mr. Bates 
in Cameroon, there are in the British Museum two birds 
from north Angola obtained by the late Dr. Ansorge and 
eight birds from the northern Belgian Congo (Uele River 
and Aruwimi River districts). There is no question but that 
these birds belong to the southern form M. g. australis. 
Besides the specimens enumerated we have five birds from 
Gaboon, and here we are faced with a difficulty. Reichenow 
(Vogel Afrikas, ii. p. 313) calls the Gaboon bird M.g. australis, 
and obviously this should be the case ; but of the five birds 
before me, three at any rate are inseparable from typical 
M. g. gularis , having the wide pale blue eyebrow streak 
and no indication of red on the feathers of the breast. On 
the other hand, two other specimens from Gaboon have the 
characters of M. g. australis clearly shown. Had the speci¬ 
mens similar to the typical form been secured in Cameroon 
and not in Gaboon (two were collected by Du Chaillu and 
the other is from the Gould collection), it would have been 
easier to explain their presence than is the case now. 
Melittophagus variegatus variegatus. 
Merops variegatus Vieill. Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. Nat. vol. xiv. 
1817, p. 25—Type locality: Malimbe, Loango. 
The five adult specimens of the Variegated Bee-eater are 
the first which Mr. Bates has sent home from Cameroon, 
and it is noteworthy that all were obtained by him in 
January 19*13 on the Nyong River at a place called Akono- 
linga. Mr. Claude Grant figured a race of this Bee-eater 
from Rhodesia (Ibis, 1915, p. 297, pi. iv.), and in the text of 
his paper remarks that most specimens of M. v. variegatus 
from western Africa “ have no superciliary stripe or only an 
incomplete one/” noting, however, that he was unable to 
handle a sufficient number of well-collected specimens from 
