MAY, 1909. BIRDS FROM BRITISH EAST AFRICA DEARBORN. 173 



the shape and color of bills this series is quite uniform. A specimen 

 loaned for examination by the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia has the light brown crown of this Nairobi bird, and the 

 gray back of the others, and is therefore a connecting link between 

 the two plumages, which are so decidedly different that, without 

 more evidence than these five specimens furnish, they would be looked 

 upon as belonging to two distinct species. 



See REICHENOW, Vogel Afrikas, III. p. 842; NEUMANN, Journal 

 fur Ornithologie, 1906, pp. 270-274. 



148. Cisticola chiniana fischeri Reicheriow. 



Journal fur Ornithologie, 1891, pp. 162, 163. Lake Naivasha. 

 d\ d\ cT, Dec., Lucania. 

 d\ Nov., Athi River. 



See NEUMANN, Journal fur Ornithologie, 1906, p. 268 ; REICHENOW, 

 ibid, p. 322. 



149. Cisticola prinoides Neumann. 



Journal fur Ornithologie, 1900, p. 304. Mau, British East Africa. 



d\ d\ d\ March, Molo. 



See OBERHOLSER, Proceedings National Museum, Washington, 

 1905, p. 902, its characters contrasted with hunteri, neumanni 

 and subruficapilla, and its distribution. 



150. Cisticola terrestris (Smith}. 



Drymoica terrestris Smith, Illustrations of the Zoology of South 

 Africa, 1849, Aves, pi. 74. South Africa. 

 9 , March, Molo. 

 9 im., Dec., Lucania. 

 i adult without data. 



This last specimen and the one that is immature are much paler 

 than the one taken in March, which agrees quite well as to color with 

 an example in this collection from South Africa. 

 See GRANT and REID, Ibis, 1901, variation. 



151. Cisticola brunnescens Heuglin. 



Journal fur Ornithologie, 1862, pp. 289, 290. North-east Africa. 

 9 , Oct., Nairobi. 

 cT, Jan., Kijabe. 



These are Cisticola hindii Sharpe. Reichenow appears to be 

 right in putting hindii in the synonomy of brunnescens,* as HeugHn's 



*V6gel Africas, III, p. 559. 



