. British Central Africa; an attempt to give some account of a portion of the territories under British influence north of the Zambezi. Natural history. ZOOLOGY 335 The only recorded representative of the Goatsuckers is the remarkable Cosmetornis vexillarius which has the ninth pinion of the wing prolonged into a narrow white plume of great length. The sixth, seventh and eighth pinion feathers which are black are also lengthened beyond what is usual. The female is without these appendages. We are actually privileged to possess two out of three species of African Trogon—Hapaloderma narina and H
. British Central Africa; an attempt to give some account of a portion of the territories under British influence north of the Zambezi. Natural history. ZOOLOGY 335 The only recorded representative of the Goatsuckers is the remarkable Cosmetornis vexillarius which has the ninth pinion of the wing prolonged into a narrow white plume of great length. The sixth, seventh and eighth pinion feathers which are black are also lengthened beyond what is usual. The female is without these appendages. We are actually privileged to possess two out of three species of African Trogon—Hapaloderma narina and H. vittatum. Both these birds are very rarely met with and up to the present have only been recorded from the Shire Highlands. Their plumage is a combination of blue-green, golden-green, and bronze, with crimson-scarlet stomach, a purple tail with white edges, and zebra marks of black and white on the wing. We now come to the consideration of a group that amongst all the puzzling affinities of the heterogeneous cohorts of Picarian birds stands out as a distinct assemblage closely inter-related—the Syndactyla, which includes the bee-eaters, hoopoes, hornbills, kingfishers, and rollers, besides other families not represented in They are well represented in British Central Africa. Notable amongst the bee-eaters is the lovely Merops natalensis, which is abundant on the river Shire and probably in other low-lying parts of British Central Africa. At Chiromo this bird is present in large numbers as it nests in holes in the high clay bank on the spot which divides the River Ruo from the Shire. When I arrived at Chiromo in 1891 to commence the administration of this country I found that these beautiful birds were being shot down in numbers to be skinned and sent home for the decoration of hats. I took them under Govern- ment protection, however, and since that time their numbers have greatly increased and they have become wonderfully tame. It is objected, however, to this fa
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