( 390 ) 



tricolor, but hv no means r/abonensis, though a young specimen has the under 

 tail-coverts very pale sulphur-yellow. Thus tricolor, layardi, micrits, sjmrnis, 

 and minor become also subspecies of the barbatas group. 



3. Together with the forms of the barbatm group, however, we find others, 

 which have almost the same plumage, but diflFer in having a protruding, wattle-like, 

 mostly oranj^e or yellowish eyelid. These forms, therefore, though disguised in a 

 similar plumage, are specifically different. These " wattled " forms are capensis, 

 nif/ricanx, reichenoivi and xanthopygos. 



4. Another form, Fycnonotua dodsmii Sliarp(>, appears to stand by itself. 

 There is evidently no wattled naked ring round the eye, though the eyelid is scantily 

 feathered. /'. dodaoni does not, therefore, belong to the capensis group, and I do 

 not think that it can be placed as a subspecies of the barbatus group because it 

 appears to inhabit countries in which forms of the barbatus group partly occur, and 

 it has also marked differences, so that there is no reason why it should not be looked 

 upon as a third specialised species. The size is very small, the rectrices have a wide, 

 sharply defined white tip, the feathers of the back and throat have whitish edges, so 

 that these parts have a scaly appearance. 



Thus we arrive at the following table : 



I. Pycnonotus barbatus : eyelid feathered. 

 la. P. barbatus barbatus : ^Morocco, Algiers, Tunis. Crown brown. Under tail- 

 coverts white. (28 specimens examined.) 

 1//. r. barbatus inornatus : Senegambia to the Niger. Like P. b. barbatus, hv\i 



smaller. (3.5 specimens examined.) 

 le. P. barbatas (jabonensis : Kamerun to Gabun. ]Ako P. b. inornatus, hut under 



tail-coverts white, edged or sometimes tinged with yellow. (G specimens 



examined, including the type.) 

 As I said before, this form does not extend to the Congo, so far as we know at 



present, where P. b. (jabonensis is replaced by P. b. tricolm: 

 \d. P. barbritus nrsinoe : N.E. Africa (Egypt to Kordofan).* Under tail-coverts 



white, crown black. (10 specimens examined.) Wing about 87 — 95 mm., 



i.e. males about 91 — 95, females less. 

 Ic. P. barbatus schoaiius : Mountains of Abyssinia and Northern Galla-land. Very 



similar to arsinoe, but much darker above. This is easily seen in fresh 



specimens, but not in worn plumage. (51 examined, among them the 



type.) 

 1/. P. barbatus somaiiensis : Zeila and Somadu. Smaller than arsinoe, but of 



about the same pale coloration. (8 examined, among them tlie type.) 

 This form is indeed very closely allied to P. b. arsinoe, in fact so closely that 

 even Prof. Reichenow called it P. arsinoe somaiiensis. It differs only by its smaller 

 size, the wings measuring in the c? 87 — 91, in the ? about 77 to 84 mm. It is 

 thus evident that this form is not easily recognisable, and I should doubt its 

 distinctness if it were not for the slender bills which it exhibits when compared 

 with P. b. arsinoe. Eeichenow's statement that it is paler brown on the ui)pcr 

 surface is not correct, as far as one can make out from the 8 rather worn specimens 

 collected by I'aron von Erlanger. On the contniry, judging from a few fresh growing 



• Mr. Grant (Xov. Xool. 1!)()0, p. 2")7).saTs that he procuri-il si)eciinens ne.iv Aden ; and Ycibuiy .stated 

 tliat this .species nests there. I have not been alile to find an Arabian siwcimcn in the ISritish Museum, 

 but I .should say that Aral)ian specimens cannot be tlie true iirtiiinf. 



