1932.1 Birds of North-Eastern Tanganyika Territory. 487

XX1X.-Taxonomic and Field Notes on some Birds of North- Eastern Tanganyika Territory.-Part I. By W. L. SCLATER, M.A., M.B.O.U., and R. E. MOREAU, East African Agri- cultural Research Station, Amani.

(Plates VI. & VII.)

NOTE BY W. L. S.

WHEN Mr. Moreau was appointed Secretary and Librarian of the East African Agricultural Research Station a t Amani, in Tanganyika Territory, in 1928, we arranged that any birds he obtained should come to the Natural History Museum, and that I would identify them for him. At first he had no assistance and the birds came slowly, but later on a grant was obtained from the Salvin-Godman Memorial Fund which enabled Mr. Moreau to employ a native collector. As a result, the collection increased rapidly, and a number of rare species, as well as several novelties, reached the Museum.

Some little time ago I suggested to Mr. Moreau that we might prepare a joint paper on the Birds of the Usambara Mountains and the adjoining districts based on these collections, and this is the result.

Mr. Moreau has prepared the draft of the paper, and though he has placed my name with his as joint author, I feel that my share in the work has been a very minor one. I have been responsible for the identifications of the birds sent home, a few taxonomic notes, and descriptions of new species, but all the field notes and many of the taxonomic notes are from the pen of Mr. Moreau, and I feel that far the greater part of the credit for the paper is due to him.

INTRODUCTION BY R. E. M. The greater part of the collection dealt with in this paper

has been brought together in the Usambara Mountains. A few specimens come from the Nguru Mountains, and the remainder from the low country between the Usambara Mountains and the Indian Ocean. The field notes are the outcome of residence at Amani since 1928. Special attention has been given to the distribution of each species within the

2L 2

485 Messrs. Sclat,er and Moreau on some [Ibis,

area worked, and I have a separate paper on that subject in preparation, in which is embodied a list of all the birds recorded for the Usambara Mountains. This will, of necessity, describe a t length the district dealt with and the several features of the birds’ environment, and will lay stress on any of their habits that appear to be particularly connected with their choice of association. To avoid duplication of matter I shalI give here only a summary indication of the nature of the country worked.

For the purpose of this paper i t will suffice, then, to say that the eastern face of the Usambara Mountains is visible about thirty miles inland as one steams into the port of Tanga (see map, P1. VI.). They comprise, in the main, two plateaus separated by the trench-like Luengera Valley, which is nearly 3000 feet deep. Both plateaus are very steep-sided, often scarped, with sheer cliffs attaining, in a t least one place, the great height of half a mile. The East Usambara Mountains, in which Amani is situated, only reach an altitude of 4000 feet a t a few points. The West Usambaras, on the other hand, form a mass all above 4000 feet, and rising in their highest ridges to 7500 feet*.

The chief feature of the mountains as a whole is the magni- ficent primary evergreen forest which clothes a great part of their surface. The total area still under forest must be at least three hundred square miles. It naturally varies considerably in aspect and composition, reaching its most spectacular development in the humid conditions of the East Usambaras. There evergreen forest actually occurs a t a lower elevation than anywhere else in East Africa, and is unsurpassed in luxuriance in that part of the continent.

This kind of forest consists of tall straight trees bearing a canopy over a hundred feet above the ground, and loaded with lianas and epiphytic plants of many kinds. This canopy is by no means so dense as that of the great West African forests : tree-ferns and a profusion of other ferns flourish, and on the ground there is a good deal of flowering under- growth. Few of the plants are thorny, and if it were not

* These heights, and the forest-description that follows, apply equally to the Nguru Mountains,

1932.1 Birds of North-Eastern Tanganyika Territory. 489

for the steepness of all the slopes and the slipperiness of the red clay soil one could move about between the trees without trouble.

The lofty evergreen forest merges on its lower edges into t~ belt of different type, still tall, but semi-deciduous and more open in texture. Clearings are numerous, many occupied by European coffee plantations with a shade of Grevillea robusta (Silky Oak), and native “ shambas,” chiefly of maize. Allround the foot of the mountains arid and deciduous bush extends, in striking contrast to the rich vegetation above.

As might be expected, these forests contain many peculiar and highly interesting forms of bird-life, quite different from those inhabiting the clearings, which belong generally to more widely-spread and well-known forms. But it is very difficult to observe in these forests, and particularly to follow up any particular specimen. The birds are, as a rule, either in the canopy, a t a neck-breaking height above, or in the ground-flora, in which one’s range of vision is often limited to a few feet. Moreover, many of the forest birds are very secretive. A stranger who was taken over one of the forest roads in a car might hardly see a bird, and it is possible for someone thoroughly acquainted with the forest to walk for a long time without seeing a single bird well enough to identify it. None of the forest species affect the surface of the roads or tracks in the forest*. The mountains abound in rushing torrents, boulder-strewn, and for the most part buried in forest. The abundance of water makes it impossible to add to one’s knowledge of the bird-population by finding and watching a favourite drinking-place. Actually the best chance of seeing many of the forest birds is t o find a tree or a creeper bearing attractive fruit-which must, as a rule, be fully ripe-within a convenient range of vision, or to overlook some area where ants, on which so many birds prey, are busy.

If eyes are of comparatively little use in the forest, it is

* It is a paradox that the only bird that ever makes itself obvious on a road through the forest is the European Grey Wagtail (Motacillo c. cineTea), at points where a stream is crossed. The species has hitherto not been reported as wintering further south than northern Kenya Colony, i. e., within about 400 miles of the Usambaras.

490 Messrs. Sclnter a d Moreau on some [Ibis,

otherwise with ears. At most times of the year this forest is by no means so silent as Mr. G. L. Bates describes the great West African forest. It is often full of sound-the wild notos of the Bar-tailed Trogon, the arpeggio of Ploceus bicolor kersteni, the metallic rattle of Bradypterus usambarce, the bell-notes of Chlorophoneus nigrifrons, the monkey-like barking of Turaczts $scheri, the stammering of Trococercus albonotatus, the mono- tonous outcry of Suaheliornis kretschmeri, the lovely song of Illadopsis stictigula, the whistle of Cercococcyx montunus, and many more. The few that have been mentioned will give an indication of the richness of the forest fauna in com- paratively little-known forms and the amazing mixture it presents of birds elsewhere confined to either the great peak3 of Equatorial Africa or to the shores of the Indian Ocean.

Although the local natives live among some of the finest forest in East Africa, they are, on the whole, remarkably devoid of bush-craft, and the enquirer can learn little from them about the local birds. They limc a few fruit-eating species in the clearings, and occasionally trap Francolin or Guinea- fowl : but I have often envied Bates his skilful West African assistants, who knew the ways of the depths of the forest During the last twelve months I have, however, had the assis- tance of an experienced native collector, and have learnt more in that time than in the two preceding years.

I am fortunate in having to deal with quite a number of forms regarding the habits of which little, or nothing whatever, is on record. With better-known birds I have confined myself mainly to points not dealt with in the literature I have at hand* or to noting points of difference between the habits of the birds met with locally and those recorded for other parts of their range. Therefore, where I have little or nothing to say about a particular form it may mean either that I know nothing or that other people have already recorded much. But anyone who has had to take stock of his knowledge, as I have done for the writing of this paper, will agree that it is a profoundly chastening experience. In compiling the field notes constant reference has been made to the works of

* I am not able to refer to anything like a proper ornithological htrary.

1932.1 Birds of North-Eastern Tanganyika Territory. 491

Reichenow (1900)) Bates (1930)) Bannerman (1930)) Belcher (1930), Vaughan (1929), Sclater (1924)) Grote (1921), Friedmann (1928), van Someren (1922), and Shelley (1881). To avoid repetition the dates specified have been omitted.

Partly because the sounds uttered by the birds in such a densely foliaged region as this are a better guide to their identification than are fleeting sights of them, I have made a special effort to give an idea of the songs and calls. I am, however, well aware that any attempt to syllable bird- cries is unsatisfactory to all concerned, and the results are offered with diEdence. In representing sounds that end abruptly the need is felt for some terminal consonant : “ k,” “ p,” and “ t ” often present themselves with equal claims. All are, in truth, equally unsatisfactory, since a particular consonant is practically never enunciated. I feel that the difficulty may be got over by using the glottal stop, which can be represented by an apostrophe. Thus “ chew ” is an open sound, “ chew’ )) one that is cut off short. Vowel-usages that may need explanation are “ a ” as in “ bark,” “ ” as in “ bathe,” “ i ” as in “ tit,” ‘’ au ” as the sound in “howl.”

As many of the birds were collected in the immediate neighbourhood of the Research Station, where facilities exist for accurate weighing, the opportunity was taken to ascertain the weights of as many forms as possible. They are given below in grams. Most of them will, I think, be found to have been hitherto unrecorded *.

Native names have been collected and verified as far as possible for four local languages-Ki-Swahili, the lingua franca of East Africa; Ki-sambara, spoken in the Usambara; Ki-kami, spoken round the Uluguru Mountains; and Ki-zigua, the dialect of the dry country extending almost from the Usam- baras to the Ulugurus. In the Systematic List that follows the names are abbreviated to “ Kisw.,” “ Kis.,” “ Kik.,” and

* It is surprising that the more extreme ‘‘ splitters,” who search out minute differences of measurement in order to distinguish new races of birds, have hitherto neglected the possibilities of comparing average weights. But their present field of research will be exhausted eventually. I foresee a time when every collector will be expected to include in his equipment a balance weighing to a tenth of D gram.

492 Messrs. Sclater and Moreau on some [Ibis,

‘’ Kiz. ,” respectively. Transliteration has been carried out in accordance with official Swahili spelling, The chief rules of pronunciation are that the accent always falls on the penulti- mate syllable, every vowel in a word is sounded separately,

and ‘‘ i ” are as in French, “ e ” has an acute accent 6 6 a 9 )

understood, and “ u ” approximates to ’‘ 00.”

While giving a certain amount of nesting-notes, I have refrained from suggesting breeding-seasons, as I hope to deal with them at a later date in considering how far a definite periodism is observable under equatorial forest conditions. It is thought that it may also be possible to publish subse- quently more exact data on food, as the stomach-contents of most of the specimens have been preserved for future examination.

Acknowledgments.

A large proportion of the field notes on which my part of this paper is based are due to my wife, who is a keen and valuable observer. Without her constant help the notes would have been a great deal more incomplete than they are. The frequent use of the pronoun “ we ” in the following pages is a natural result of our close collaboration.

Thanks are due to Dr. van Someren for commenting on a number of skins submitted to him for comparison, and to Admiral Lynes for a generous gift of literature. Finally, my grateful thanks are due to the Salvin-Godman Memorial Fund, whose financial aid enabled me to employ a native collector for a considerable time and to make the collections much more complete.

Localities worked. It may, perhaps, be convenient to add a brief reference to

a few localities other than Amani that will be found to appear on my labels :-

Kizara lies near the north end of the East Usambaras a t 2600 feet, a t the head of the Bombo Valley, running down to the dry bush of the Kenya border (see map, P1. VI.).

The Middle Sigi Valley, a few miles east of Amani, is a narrow trough only 500 feet above the sea. It still contains much tall semi-deciduous forest.

1932.1 Birds of North-Eastern Tanganyika Territory. -193

Kongei, a valley farmed by Europeans at 4000 feet, in the West Usambaras, has been described at some length elsewhere (Moreau, 1931).

Magamba is a district of short grassland and low scrubby forest a t 5500 feet, between Lushoto (the Wilhelmstal of the German maps) and the great Shume forest.

Ngomeni is in a belt of savannah country not above 600 feet in elevation, inland from Tanga. The small trees on it occur very sparsely, but there are occasional patches of very dense, tall, closed bush.

Shagai Forest covers the north-west corner of the West Usambaras, from 5600 feet to over 7000 feet.

Vuga and Bumbuli lie in the south-east quarter of the West Usambaras, and between them, at 5600 feet, the ever- green Sdaremai Forest.

Mhonda (1600 feet) is situated at the foot of the Nguru Xfountains, which are midway between the Usambaras and the Ulugurus. Magnificent primary forest extends from there, except for a few clearings, to the top of the Ngurus (about 7000 feet) and nearly to the mission station of Maskati (5100 feet). This is the modern spelling of what appears on the old and extremely imperfect maps of the region as JIasgut a.

Past Ornithological Work in the Usambaras.

Most of the famous East African travellers, from Krapf onwards, passed within sight of the Usambaras (Kersten, 1868). Several actually skirted the mountains*. None seem to have penetrated them or visited the district in which Amani was afterwards founded. It may he supposed that, bent as they were on longer journeys, and in search of grander mountains, these travellers did not think the tangle presented by this small area of precipice and dense forest worth the trouble of examination.

Burton and Spcke in 1857 passed within a dozen miles of Amani, through the Potwe gap. So did Fischer and Stuhl- mann, who collected at Lewa, near Muhesa, and on through

* Von der Decken obtained the type of the Lophoceros named after him in the northern foothills.

494 Messrs. Sclater and Moreau on some [Ibis,

Korogwe (Fischer, 1879, and Reichenow, 1889). Neumann, again, came to Magda, just outside Muhesa (Neumann, 1898), and, crossing the Pangani River, marched on through the Uzigua country south of Korogwe. As he has been good enough to inform me in answer to my enquiries, he did not penetrate the Usambara Mountains themselves.

Sir John Kirk’s collections, as well as those of Fischer and Neumann, contain specimens labelled “ Usambara Hills ” and “ Usambara Mountains ” (Shelley, 1881), but the latter indicates “ the valley of the Pangani River ” as their district of origin, and it is clear from internal evidence* that they must have come from the comparatively low-lying and accessible ground near the line Pangani-Pot@e. Kirk employed native collectors to work the mainland, and it is likely that the “ Mountains ” of his labels refer as a rule to the small detached peak called Tongwe, which just attains 2000 feet, and is close to the north bank of the Pangani River, about thirty miles inland from the sea. The Sultan of Zanzibar maintained a “ fort ” on the hill with a few soldiers. Sir John himself appears to have made only a single flying visit to the Usambara, in 1877. Mr. P. J. Greenway has most kindly examined for me his original letters from Zanzibar, preserved at Kew. All the collecting they mention is botanical, and no localities are given, but by piecing together the odd references to the safari it appears that Sir John travelled two days inland to the “ first slope of the Ushambala Hills,’’ and spent one day there-during which it characteristically “ rained hard the whole time ”-attaining a maximum elevation of 2300 feet. Canon H. W. Woodward, of the U.M.C.A., that wonderful surviving pioneer of the “ Earlies ” in East Africa, informs me that Sir John once visited Magila Mission, just outside Muhesa, and it was probably on this occasion. The country lying between the Pangani River and the mountains proper, which may be said to begin at Magila, was, in the nineteenth century, still predominantly one of tall forest, but of the semi-deciduous, not evergreen, type.

* Kirk’s collections contain no single species that is confined to the evergreen rain-forest of the Amani plateau, and nearly a score that do not appear to be resident within the Amani district anywhere.

IBIS. 1932. PI.VI1.

~~

Amani from the west.

Amani Station.

1932.1 Birds of North-Eastern Tanganyika Territory. 495

It is worth while to mention here that in the early days of East African penetration the term ‘‘ Usambara ” was applied to the whole of the realm of the native tribe, the Wa-sambara, and was not restricted to the mountainous district, as has been the tendency in more recent times. In fact, prior to 1870, in the heydey of the ruling Wa-Kilindi family, their sway extended to Tanga and the mouth of the Pangani River (Baumann, 1891). In consequence birds collected within a few miles of the Indian Ocean and botanical specimens from the shore-line itself are to be found labelled “ Usambara.” Sjostedt (1910), who puts the port of Tanga in “ Usambara,” was, perhaps, the last to use the term in that extensive sense, which is now quite obsolete.

At the beginning of the present century, therefore, the whole of the Usambara Mountains proper, west and east, were ornithologically unknown. Since 1900 two collections have been brought together. Pastor Roehl made a large collection. extending over a number of years, a t Mlalo, near one of the highest points (7500 feet) in the West Usambaras. (He obtained no less than 170 specimens of one bird.) A con- siderable number of new forms were described from this collec- tion, which is housed in Berlin, and a list of the birds obtained has been published by Grote (1921). Unfortunately we have no field notes whatever regarding the many rare and peculiar forms, and little information regarding the country in which the collection was made.

In 1913 Schuster paid a flying visit to Shume, in the West Usambaras (Schuster, 1926), but there appear to have been no particular ornithological results. Apart from a little sporadic collecting in the same mountains, of which the description of Arizelocichla nigriceps percivali Hartert is the only published result I have been able to trace*, Loveridge is the only other man who has worked in the West Usambaras, and the only one to do anything a t all in the east. He was at Amani for a few weeks in 1926. His collections, which went to America in their entirety, have been described by Friedmann in ‘The Ibis ’ (1928). This paper is purely systematic.

* I understand that some skins brought together by A. B. Percival’s native collectors are being worked out at Philadelphia.

496 Messrs. Sclater and Moreau on some [Ibis,

Localities are referred to without the slightest indication of their height above the sea or of their nature, a form of presentation that it to be deprecated. The necessary descriptions may be found in a paper by Barbour and Loveridge (1928) on the local herpetology. Loveridge himself published (1928) some notes on the biology of Usambara and Uluguru birds, with incidental references to the nature of the country worked.

It is a remarkable thing that during the ten years’ working existence of the German Biologisch-Landwirtschaftliches Institut a t Amani during which zoologists were on its staff nothing appears to have been done on the local birds. I can trace no single notice of birds emanating from the Institut except one dealing with their reaction to “ Stink Locusts ” (Vosseler, 1907). One new race was, however, described from Amani, Bubo poensis vosseleri Reichenow, the type of which was sent to Berlin.

Considering the easy accessibility of the Usambara Mountains, and the remarkable character of their fauna, it is surprising how little attention they have received from naturalists. The ornithology was even in 1930 so far from worked out that several new forms were described from the collection on which this paper is based. I am sure that the list of birds resident in these mountains is yet far from complete ; among other birds, I have reason to believe they harbour a Parus (perhaps albiventris), an Apalis near$avigularis, a Lampribis, and a Barbet something like Lybius rubrifacies.

It remains, I believe, unique.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. B a u i ~ ~ s x , O.-Usambara und seine Nachbargebiete. FISCKER, A. G.-Uebersicht der von Dr. G. A. Fischer auf seiner im

Auftrage der Hamburger geographischen Gesellschaft unter- nommender Reise in des Masailand gesammelten und beobach- teton Vogelarten. Zeitschr. ges. Om. i. 1884, pp. 297-396, 2 pls.

FISCHER, A. G., und REICHENOW, A.-Neue Vogelarten aus dem Masailand (Inneres Ostafrika).

[In this journey, in 1882-3, Fischer landed a t the mouth of the Pangani and skirted the Usambara, passing to the south of the Pare Xountains and Kilimanjaro through the Arusha country to Ngurumu and Lake Naivasha.]

Berlin, 1891.

Journ. Om. 1885, pp. 52-58.

1932.1 Birds of North-Eastern Tanganyika Territory. 497

FRIEDMANN, H.-A collection of Birds from the Uluguru and the Usambara Mountains, Tanganyika Territory. Ibis, 1928, pp. 74-99.

[Account of a collection, now in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass., made by Mr. A. Loveridge in the autumn of 1926.1

Journ.

[Based on a collection made by the German missionary, Pastor K. Roehl, between 1904 and 1907, a t Mlado, near Wilhelmstahl, in West Usambara, at about 4500 feet. 133 speci- mens listed. Some 17 new forms were included, most of them previously described by Grote and Reichenow.]

KERSTEN, 0.-Baron Carl von der Decken's Reisen in Ost-Afrka in den Jahren 1859 bis 1861.-Vol. I.

[Map iii. of vol. i. shows Krapf's routes in 1848 and in 1852, when he visited the Usambara Mountains.]

LOVERIDGE, A.-Notes on East African Birds (chiefly nesting-habits and stomach-contents) collected in 1926. Proc. Zool. SOC. London, 1928, pp. 71-79.

[Observations on the Birds of the Uluguru and Usambara Mts. made by the author when collecting Reptiles for the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass.]

NEUMANN, 0.-Beitrage zur Vogelfauna von Ost- und Central Afrika. Journ. Om. 1898, pp. 227-305; 1899, pp. 33-74; 1900, pp. 185- 228, 253-313 ; 2 pls. and map.

[Professor 0. Neumann was in Usambara from 30 April to 8 May, 1893 ; a map of his route will be found in the last of the contributions.]

Journ. Om. 1889, pp. 264-286.

[In this paper are listed Dr. F. Stuhlmann's collections, made chiefly in Zanzibar and Quilimane, while a few specimens were collected in Usambara.]

SCHUSTER, L.-Beitrage zur Verbeitung und Biologie der Vogel Deutsch-Ostafrikas. Journ. Om. 1926, pp. 138-167, 521-541,

[Schuster visited Usambara 14 April, 1913, for a few days

SHELLEY, G. E.-List of Birds recently collected by Dr. Kirk in Eastern Proc. Zool. SOC. 1881, pp. 561-602, pl. lii.

GROTE, H.-Ueber eine Vogelsammlung aus West Usambara. Om. 1921, pp. 121-138.

Leipzig and Heidelberg, 1869.

REICHENOW, A.-Ueber einer Vogelsammlung aus Ostafrika.

709-742.

(see p. 140).]

Africa.