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Show 122 CAPT. G. E. SHELLEY O N [Feb. 1, 5. On a Collection of Birds made by Mr. H. H. Johnston on the Cameroons Mountain. By Captain G. E. SHELLEY, F.Z.S. [Received January 3, 1887.] (Plates XIII. & XIV.) Mr. II. H. Johnston, F.Z.S., well known for his researches on the Congo, and successful expedition to the heights of Kilimanjaro in East Africa, has now sent us some birds from a nearly equally elevated district of Western Africa ; and I am pleased to find in this collection from the Cameroons Mountain an interesting proportion of new species. The collection, which has been sent to me for examination by the Cameroons Committee of the British Association, contains 36 skins referable to 18 species. Of these the following are new to science :-(1) Poliopicus johnstoni, (2) Psalidoprocne fuliginosa, (3) Laniarius atroflavus, and (4) Ploceus melanogaster. Our previous knowledge of the avifauna of the higher part of the Cameroons Mountain is entirely derived from an article by Mr. G. R. Gray (Ann. Nat. Hist. 1862, x. p. 413) on the birds obtained by Capt. R. Burton during his ascent of the mountains in 1861-62 . In 1871 Mr. R. B. Sharpe (P. Z. S. 1871, p. 614) described a collection of birds made by Mr. Crossley in the Cameroons district; and in 1874 and 1875 Dr. Reichenow, in the ' Journal fiir Orui-thologie,' published the results of his West-African Expedition of 1872, during which he visited the Cameroons river and penetrated up the mountain to a height of about 4000 feet. But neither Mr. Crossley nor Dr. Reichenow seemed to have obtained any specimens from the higher elevations to which Capt. Burton and Mr. Johnston have ascended. 1. POLIOPICUS JOHNSTONI, sp. n. a. cS, October, 6000 feet.-A broad black forehead with a buff patch on each side of the base of the culmen ; remainder of the crown and the nape red. Remainder of the upper parts, when the engaged in skinning black and golden Shrikes, metallic-green and crimson-breasted Sunbirds, ruddy Chats, olive-green Warblers, dull grey Grosbeaks, and tiny, indefinite, insect-eating birds of blue-grey and russet-brown. " In this forest, too, I shot flying Squirrels and small vole-like Eats. These were the only mammals we saw, except when, very rarely, we got a hurried glimpse of a red-coated, white-striped Antelope of the genus Tragelaphus." From Mann's Spring Mr. Johnston transferred his camp to Hunter's Hut (8300 feet), in " a narrow peninsula of forest which pushes up the mountainside," and subsequently to another spot situated at an elevation of 10,500 feet, whence the final ascent was made. He made the summit by boiling-point observation to be 13,760 feet, which is about 500 feet less than the usual estimation.-P. L. S.] 1 See Burton's 'Abeokuta and the Cameroons Mountains.' 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1863. |
