716 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
Cinnyris johannae J. and E. Verreaux. Red-bellied Sunbird 
Cinnyris johannae J. and E. Verreaux, Rev. Mag. Zool., ser. 2, vol. 3, p. 314, 1851: Gaboon. 
Slightly smaller, about 4.5 inches: male green above with steely blue reflections and similar 
on head and upper throat; a shiny purple band across the breast; abdomen scarlet; a tuft of con- 
cealed yellow feathers on each side of breast; belly and under tail-coverts black. Female dull 
olive green above, tail blackish; below white, finely streaked with black and washed on breast and 
belly with yellow. Sierra Leone to Congo. 
This is an uncommon species of which Biittikofer in the course of his collect- 
ing secured only three, at Schieffelinsville and on the Junk River. Oberholser 
records one from Mount Coffee and Lowe collected it at Nana Kru. We can add 
an adult female from Paiata and a male taken by Whitman at Tappi Town 
on the eastern border. Kemp (1905) speaks of it as haunting the tallest flower- 
ing trees in Sierra Leone. Our female specimen is less yellow below than one 
from the Cameroons. 
Cinnyris venustus venustus (Shaw) 
Certhia venusta Shaw, Naturalist’s Misc., vol. 10, pl. 369, 1799: Sierra Leone. 
Small, 4 inches long; above bright green, forehead with bluish reflections; chin black, throat 
black with green, blue, and violet reflections, belly yellowish; a tuft of orange-yellow feathers on 
side of breast. Female smaller, grayish brown above, throat and breast yellowish. Senegambia to 
Gaboon. 
This sunbird was found commonly by Biittikofer and Stampfli at various 
localities, as Schieffelinsville, Robertport, and on the Junk, Marfa, Du, and 
Mesurado rivers, and by Lowe at Nana Kru and Subono on the south coast, 
but curiously we missed it altogether. Thompson (1925) regards it as probably 
the most common sunbird about Freetown, Sierra Leone. Possibly it is less 
abundant in Liberia during the rains which was the season of our visit. 
Cinnyris chloropygius kempi Ogilvie-Grant. Green-backed Sunbird 
Cinnyris kempi Ogilvie-Grant, Trans. Zool. Soc. London, vol. 19, p. 829, 1910: Sierra Leone. 
Size of a kinglet, 4 inches; male with metallic-green back and throat, wings and tail blackish 
brown; a red band across breast, and a tuft of yellow feathers at each side of breast; belly olive 
brown. Female olive above, breast and belly pale yellow, throat yellowish gray. Senegambia to 
Niger. 
This is the most abundant and familiar of the sunbirds, coming freely into the 
gardens to visit the flowers or flowering trees, but in general keeping among the 
lower growth. Biittikofer found it the commonest species at various localities 
along the coast, as Robertport, Cape Mount, and Schieffelinsville; Oberholser 
has recorded it from Mount Coffee, Bannerman from the south coast as at Nana 
Kru and Settra Kru, and we found it common in open places and edges of clear- 
ings at various localities in the interior. Some that we watched in a garden at 
Monrovia seemed fond of the greenish inconspicuous flowers of the manioc as 
well as the red blossoms of Hibiscus and a smaller orange and yellow flower with 
long exserted stamens. ‘The last seemed especially well adapted for ecross-ferti- 
lization by these birds but I could not see that this took place, for the birds 
usually fed from behind the corolla, standing on its stem and putting their bills 
