Page 14 - 2020 SoM Journal Vol 73 No 1 FINAL_Neat

6 The Society of Malawi Journal

[3]. Shelley's publication included the description of the new species, as well as
a superb painting of the new species. This species was later recognized as just a
subspecies of another species - Malaconotus nigrifrons, the Black-fronted Bush-
shrike. It is now known as Malaconotus nigrifrons manningi – Manning's Black-
fronted Bush-shrike*. Although described from the Nyasa-Tanganyika border
(now in north-east Zambia), the taxon occurs widely throughout most of Malawi.
Additionally, Lt-Colonel Manning presented a total of 438 specimens of birds
between 1899 and 1901.
The second taxon is a rock hyrax, a species of mammal that lives on
rocky habitats throughout most of Malawi. The type specimen was collected on
'Mlanji' (= Mt Mulanje) by 'Mr Brown', and later acquired by a dealer (W. H.
Rosenberg) who later sold it to the British Museum (Natural History) [4]. The
describer of the new taxon, R. C. Wroughton, did not say who Mr Brown was, but
is likely that he was Henry Brown - an agent of the Lakes Company. Henry Brown
obtained some land in about 1893 near Mt Mulanje so he could build a house and
establish a coffee plantation [5]; so, it is quite plausible that while climbing on Mt
Mulanje, he obtained several
specimens of this new species.
In his publication, Wroughton
reviewed four taxa of rock-
dwelling hyraxes in eastern
Africa including the specimen
collected by Mr Brown and two
others collected on Mt Mulanje
and presented in 1901 by Lt. Col.
Manning. Wroughton decided
that the Mt Mulanje specimens
were a geographic variant of
Procavia brucei, a species
recorded from the Horn of Africa
to Zimbabwe, and that the Mt
Mlanje specimens warranted the
status of a subspecies - Procavia
brucei manningi [4]. (Later
studies allocated the species Heterohyrax brucei manningi
brucei to a new genus (photo: Bentley Palmer)
Heterohyrax - so the official
name is now Heterohyrax brucei
manningi – Manning's Bush Hyrax). A final interesting comment is that these
Mulanje specimens were not named after Mr Brown, the collector of the important
type specimen; instead Wroughton chose to name the new subspecies after
General Manning. General Manning does have some claim to be associated with